


The Cat, The Bat and The Bird.

by Kokoacrazytea



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Catwoman Has a Sidekick | Catlad | Stray (DCU), Barbara Gordon is Batgirl, Damian Wayne is Batman, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Dick Grayson is Robin, Dimension Travel, F/M, Jason Todd is Red Hood, M/M, Multi, Stephanie Brown is Oracle, Tim Drake is Catlad | Stray, Tim Drake is Red Hood, Tim Drake is Red Robin, english is not the author first language, more tags would be add, mostly pretty normal though, old! damian wayne, old! tim drake, reverese robins AU, there's very weird things happening i'm sorry, warning for slightly sexual themes, warning for swearing, young! Dick grayson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 52,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25595467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kokoacrazytea/pseuds/Kokoacrazytea
Summary: “I took in a last mission, what momma and I do isn’t something they like, doesn’t go with their strict values and shit” he laughed humorlessly “But I was so ready to kiss my lifestyle goodbye… then stupid me fucking freak out and I had to had one lass mission, you know, as a bachelor party”.“My name is Damian Wayne al Ghul. We located this version of Tim drake in our universe and we got trapped in his attempt to escape, now we need your assistance to get back home”“If Ra’s al Ghul was behind this, then maybe this world’s Ra’s is looking for it too, or at least…he knows about it, but the risk that he doesn’t know, the possibility that we might be giving him ideas is too much of a risk, we might have to implant some bugs inside, maybe go there myself”.“What makes you think you wouldn’t suffer the same destiny the one who calls himself Stray suffered in his world?”“My Tim drake is not such a reckless mere thief, he can handle grandfather”or in simple words:Stray gets thrown to another universe trying to escape another one he was also thrown into. To go back to his universe and get married he has to work with the psycho who wanted his head and a very young, very serious version of himself.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Tim Drake/Damian Wayne, is complicated - Relationship, kinda like a side pairing
Comments: 7
Kudos: 69





	1. the running cat

**Author's Note:**

> Stray get lost.  
> Batman gets tangled in the middle of someone else problems.  
> Red Robin is just a bit too tired to care.

The running cat.

Stray put his hands behind his back, looking around to the horrible bat that was hunting him down. He had investigated upon arriving to this weird alternate universe about him, and all pointed out that he was dead; cold; didn’t even should had lifted suspicion around him while he tried to go back home; but then the insufferable bat found him sneaking around in the city and upon looking at his face begun to hunt him down, not matter how many times he tried to explain he wasn’t a treat. Well, try to rip off his face wouldn’t help him convince the bat of his good intentions, but momma had said to him that he only needed to survive, good or bad intentions didn’t matter in the wild world, and only those with issues dressed themselves like bats and shit. Well, momma dressed like a cat and he wasn’t any better, he thought as he tried to focus his infrared goggles better on his slim face.

In his universe, Batman was an old man, in his forties or early fifties by now, a bit older than momma, and Selina was well inside her forties by now. And the little robin that used to follow him around, albeit an adorable thing when younger was a damn violent gremlin that Tim loved mocking around, well now he wasn’t robin anymore but the point was made! They, both him and momma, had seduced the bat family multiple times for them to begun relishing their relationships and he had started long ago considering his universe Bruce a parent the same as Selina. So long for a dysfunctional family get together in other realities. This universe Batman was young, around his age, twenty something or more, and the little tiny robin was actually a cheerful little acrobat, much younger than his robin and much less horrible. This Batman spoke like he was inside a book that mixed Shakespeare insufferable monologues and a black noir haste and mannerisms, but the kid beside him refused to even swear and always laughed at anything inside his little mind. They had him mixed with someone that obviously was against them; by the way they fought to trap him, not to punish him.

Lots of thing had happened and now he was there, standing like a kid that was being scowled and trying to put on his innocent face that always had his universe robin blabbering and pouting before letting him go. The bat was there, jumping off a cliff to get just in front of Stray, and the little robin appeared beside him, smiling up at him, only when Tim smiled back, a devious elegant smirk, the little boy backed off and looked at Batman.

“D, I don’t think he is timmy” he exclaimed, the man grunted a soft “code names” and then Tim sat down cross legged on the floor, dust everywhere making his nose ting and sneeze.

“Finally” he sighed.

“Who are you then? Your face is the same and you are almost as skilled if not deadlier”

“Calm down a bit, would ya?” Stray took off his belt a weird shaped rock; it was a greenish blue with sharp edges but somehow round, nothing catching your ye at first glance, then the traces of gold that seemed to appear only to the focused eyes were enough to keep your attention on it, it glowed when he shook it in his hand. “This thing gave us all this trouble, but I’m not ready to explain to you all that jazz yet. Now, I have some questions” he purred a bit when the Batman got closer to him, the little robin sat at his feet, mesmerized by the rock.

The bat growled but otherwise didn’t say anything, so Tim begun.

“First, who are you? You don’t look nothing like Bruce, except maybe your chin but that’s all. Second, what the fuck is happening here, when I arrived at this universe I looked for myself everywhere but I found out I was cold since some years ago, so why the fuck are you looking for me?” he fumed, at the mention of his death, the bat flinched. “And third… do you know anything about Damian Wayne?” the last question was hesitant, spoken softly; the young lean man braced himself. All this was the fault of this damn rock in his hand. And of course, fucking Ra’s al Ghul… but he wasn’t ready yet to remember anything of what had happened to him, he only wanted to come back home. Back to his stupid not-so-little anymore robin.

“What about him?” the bat asked, the cheerful robin fell silent in front of him, mouth agape.

Tim furrowed his eyebrows.

“Why would you want to know about him?” the bat pressed. Tim looked deviously to him, and then took off his goggles so they would understand he was trying to be honest here.

“so this is clearly not my universe, I’m dead here and you are not Bruce, is not like he would mind” he reasoned aloud with himself, smiling mischievously “He is what batsy is to momma” he licked his lips “We are engaged actually, so we might be a little more serious than Bruce and momma about this” he then looked at his hands, at his ring finger where his ring was supposed to rest in, regret in his eyes he wanted to hide “I took in a last mission, what momma and I do isn’t something they like, doesn’t go with their strict values and shit” he laughed humorlessly “But I was so ready to kiss my lifestyle goodbye… then stupid me fucking freak out and I had to had one lass mission, you know, as a bachelor party” he wasn’t crying but his eyes burnt “And then his fucking grandfather thought that little me outside of Gotham was invitation enough to kidnap me and…well, stuff happened and now I’m here, and I don’t know if I would ever going to see him again, and well, the dude was and insufferable little gremlin but he was my insufferable little gremlin and… I won’t lie to you, what good would that do? I’m fucking scared. I just want to go home” he really wasn’t crying, but he might as well, with how broken his voice sounded, and how pitying was the expression on the robin’s face.

He looked up at the bat, who was crunching in front of him, behind his robin, and then let out a gasp as the man took off his cowl. Green eyes in a stoic handsome face looked at him with something too deep for him, a hidden affection behind his eyes. The man nodded to him and then, in less than he could form words again, the man put the cowl back and was swimming him over his shoulder.

Tim tried to struggle against him. This Damian, this world’s Batman, was strong and unforgiving, and Tim was panicking.

“Let me go, let me go, you are not my Damian, you can’t touch me, let me go” he all but groaned, kicking his chest and punching his back, the bat was unfazed. “Damn you, I’ll make you regret this.”

“I bet you'd want to know about this world’s Tim” the cheerful robin said not so cheerfully, following like a little duckling behind them “long story short, Lazarus pit craziness struck him and now some bad guys want to skin him, we are looking for him to try and save him, but he is attacking us too” the Batman glared at his robin, and the little kid only shrugged and snickered. Stray stopped fighting, looked around at the too similar Gotham.

“What about you, kid? Are you like…the one millionth robin?” he asked, looking boringly to his sharp nails.

“I’m Dick Grayson” he chirped. The bat growled again, but otherwise keep walking, they stood a moment at the edge of a roof and jumped, swimming while the little robin whined an apology and then keep talking to Stray, who looked at him with wide eyes. “How is my other me?”

“well, for starters, much older… god, so much older” then he hit the back of the Batman again “Explain” he ordered, the man grunted a “You explain” and Stray could only whine out while they swum farther into the city in direction to a safe house, he guessed, because the manor was in the other direction, at least in his universe.

“In my world, Dick Grayson is the first robin, Jason Todd then took the mantle, he had died and I was just about to go to the Batman himself to convince him he needed help… you know, make some calls to Dick Grayson and make them work together again, but my parents sent me to a board school before I had my chances, the damn trunk had an accident, and I was lost in Gotham for about a month before momma took me in.”

“Cat woman adopted you?” the robin asked, Tim nodded in answer, noncommittal.

“Anyway, things sorted out by themselves after Bruce’s back broke, and I started my business” he made a pleased sound when, kicking closer to the Batman’s rib, the man gripped strongly to his thigh, never forget to add a bit of foreplay “Dick Grayson came back in the middle of the reign of Jean Paul, because Gotham was literal hell, and became Batman, then Bruce was Batman again and then lots of bullshit happened; then a little new robin introduced himself to me some years ago, and well, stuff happened, and now that little robin is my handsome intended” he let his finger run down to the back of the Batman, tracing a seductive pace back and forth down to his ass, the man smacked him in his own ass and Tim stopped being so “him” for a bit.

“In this universe, Big D is the first robin, then you become robin, but you died” Tim nodded.

“Like the Jason in my world” he hummed. “Did I come back like the Jason in my world? Crazy and seeking vengeance? The dude tried to shut a damn bullet in my brain because he was detaching himself from batsy’s teaching and killing was a must, almost didn’t live to tell the tale” he laughed, the young robin fell silent.

“You did” the Batman said “But also, you wanted to kill this world Jason” he added. Tim felt his stomach tied in tight knots.

“Sorry about that” he offered, even if he wasn’t the Tim of this world.

“Wasn’t you who did it, stupid.”

“Still” he said “now, where are we going?”

“Does it matter?”

“Unless you have a safe house near here, I’m pretty concerned to why I’m going straight to where Arkham is” a bit of panic in his gut became apparent as he recognized his surroundings. Then, with a grunt of frustration he hit himself in his forearm, grabbed his goggles and put them correctly over his face “should I fucking realize before” then before the bat could even explain himself or the little robin could plead to trust them, Stray lift his arm and faster than a beat he cut his intended back. It didn’t matter that he was hurting Damian, this dude wasn’t his Damian, was this world’s Tim, and this world Tim didn’t want them alive either, so he was winning here, or at least until he could escape he would tell himself that, ignoring the breathless pain in all his body that shivered upon hearing Damian scream in pain. He jumped and ran through the rooftops of Gotham till he was confident he had lost them, then he kicked the wall, cursing to himself.

“You stupid thing fucking did this” he screamed to the rock he still had in him, those stupid bats didn’t believe him in the sightless if they didn’t even attempt to recover the damn rock. “Stupid little shit” he groaned again, shaking his arms in a tantrum over all of this trouble he got into. “damn here just when I had tried to be a good little boy, they fucking screw me over now I had to fucking take the load of shit of some damn bat freak that isn’t bruc-“

The rock glowed, Tim fell silent as it also started to vibrate in his hand and then a too familiar blinding light covered him, just as he heard this world’s Batman scream at him to stop. If Tim had known how to stop he would have done that by now, damn bat freak.

* * *

This Gotham reek was as awful as his Gotham and even if he wasn’t home he sighed at the familiar smell.

How did he know he wasn’t home?

Same city, same gloomy weather, same bat freak that was Bruce, and Damian here was also robin. The difference? This Damian was clearly too young to be his. And the other Batman was looking at him with confusion hiding behind a big scowl.

When he tried to move, look for his back pocket in his belt, or for the rock, he found himself tied, and these people weren’t going easy on him by the pain in his wrist when he struggled.

“Drake” the boy called, and even though he felt like he wanted to squeal at his husband-to-be miniature self, he also wanted to live to tell Damian just how cute he used to be when he could go back home. It wouldn’t be soon enough, it seemed.

“Great, other universe, other damn robin” he grunted, voice rough for lack of use. Weird, when he woke up in the other universe, his voice sounded perfectly normal. How long was he out? “Damn, I would ask what time it is but wouldn’t answer shit” he sat himself, hands pressed against his back, making his spine arch and, if he was momma, he would be pretty damn pleased to distract the Batman with some heavy weaponry, but he was just a skinny guy in leather, nothing too distracting.

He would have laughed at himself if this world’s robin weren’t pointing his sword to him, just under his jugular, playing with his pulse, ghosting just about him like a cold breath.

He licked his lips, looking at him under his lashes, his goggles still in his head “easy there” then a soft smile on his lips distracted the boy enough for him to throw a kick at his hand gripping the katana, while the other kicked his side just a moment after. He rocked his back and in a simple movement he was standing again, spine still arching because of the ropes in his hands and arms, but he knew the trick, he knew how the bats tied their knots, and in just a wicked wink he squirmed and freed himself, looking all too thrilled with himself when the bats looked surprised at this. He was so tired and aching all over, but somehow he found the energy to jump over Damian, years of experience on fighting him seeming of advantage as he predicted every move and managed to pin him under him, foot in his neck, knee in his stomach, hand holding the katana he let fall and pointing at the Batman, successfully keeping him away from him.

“Now, I believe you have questions” he said, too smug for this robin licking as the boy growled at him. He once more revealed his face to these freaks, and got a gasp of surprise. “Hey, that’s weird, They already know how I am so why do they sound so surprised” he mustered, and then realized the gasp wasn’t from any of the men he managed to stop from trapping him temporarily in a dirty Gotham rooftop. He looked over to see himself in some very weird clothes, he didn’t looked like a criminal… didn’t look like a crazy zombie in a hunting runt, and he looked pretty much the same as these bat-freaks. Weird people in Kevlar that were literal kamikazes throwing themselves to the streets of Gotham and looked also younger than him, and-

Just beside that Tim was the little robin, Dick Grayson. That must mean that the insufferable other Damian was-

A clean punch in the face lulled him back to a dreamless state.

* * *

When he woke up he saw in front of him such weird moment happening, he wanted to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming all of this, but sincerely with all that was happening, he had to believe any bullshit they decided to throw at him.

“My name is Damian Wayne al Ghul. We located this version of Tim Drake in our universe and we got trapped in his attempt to escape, now we need your assistance to get back home” the bat-freak that wasn’t technically his soon to-be-husband said in a too formal voice, Tim really missed those times where he hated Damian with all his might because his intended was a handsome sweetheart that believed in him and called him beloved and that most definitively wouldn’t have him locked away at some corner of the bat cave without something to protect him from the cold and dusty air down here, these other universes Damian weren’t even close to the man his lover was but still he couldn’t bring himself to feel truly furious.

Then his right mind came back and he realized that the other universe Damian that was Batman had followed him to this universe, assuming he wanted to escape, which, he did, but to his universe and not this feverish dream universe where he was still a young boy. He wanted out. He wanted his soft bed, at his momma penthouse; he wanted back on his lover arms, he wanted back on his stupid life, with his stupid life-decisions being simply enough like if he would eat breakfast first or having a shower and not this.

He whimpered, tried to kick his legs in another tantrum, wanted to wail and curse and-

“I can’t anymore” he cried, softly, to himself, so he could find comfort in at least his roughed voice “I can’t, I can’t… why do I have to be such a stupid idiot?” he let his head hit the rough rocky surface of the cave and gave in the sparks of pain in his scalp and the cold in his back and the dusty air of the cave as fat tears run down his face “you must be pretty mad at me wherever you are now, my love” he sobbed quietly then rocked his body to rest his head in his knees, before he could even notice someone was beside him.

A small hand grasped his shoulder trying to offer comfort; a small face looked down at him with gentle eyes. It was Dick Grayson, the robin one. The pain in his chest just growled. It was bad enough he wouldn’t see Damian anytime soon, he didn’t need to be reminded he would maybe never see his family again.

“Damn it kid, what can a boy do?” he murmured softly. Dick Grayson didn’t know how to answer and when Stray let out a shaky sob, he hugged him. Tim sighed against his shoulder, looking over to the other bat freaks, his self of this universe wasn’t anywhere near, and so, he felt even shittier. He grimaced as he saw Damian’s eyes, the Batman one, and then Bruce’s eyes too all over him, like they expected him to cause ruckus again “shouldn’t do this, boy wonder, look at batsy being all cautious and shit” if Tim could flip them, he would, he didn’t owned anything to these bat freaks anyway, instead of his finger, he slapped his neck so his hair could flip like a mean bee queen in those teens movies, sneering to them with a menacing glare, if he would be treated like an animal and be caged away, then he would act his part.

“But you need a hug” whined the little robin, Tim acted tough though, and laughed with a bit too much momma-touch to look at his captors with the seductiveness predator look of a tiger.

“Oh believe me boy, I need much more than that” yeah. He needed to get home.

Survive.

Apparently the batmen had introduced themselves and the robins had exchanged information about their universes and how they happen to find Tim, that only left him in the queue to meet his other self.

Some hours happened tough, and he was still tied to the wall, listening to the others talk and talk and talk without even offering a word, only with the little angel that was Dick Grayson feeding him sweets and offering him juice as his only company, he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Where the fuck is this world’s Tim Drake?” he asked, as this world’s robin passed in front of him, the little gremlin stopped and looked at him like an annoyance.

“Somewhere, I don’t know, I’m not his babysitter” he answered, looking even more pissed than when he had put his foot in his neck.

“Well there, little robin, not that I said anything to trigger you or whatever, I just want to talk to him, you know. You had talked to your other self, Dicky said he already chatted with this world’s Grayson, and that only lefts me hanging, c’mon now, I just want to know how it feels to be one of you” he joked, neck hurting like hell, the little demon only squinted his eyes at him and was about to lift his arm to touch his goggles when a soft hum echoed the cave.

“Oh, you are here,” this world’s Tim said, looking at Damian with a scrunched face, damn, lap mined relationship here, how lucky of him. This Tim looked at him, tried to smile but it just came out as a half assed smirk and then he was just in front of him, making this Damian move away, crossing his arms and looking too defensive for Stray’s licking “shouldn’t you be on patrol?” he asked to Damian, the kid shrugged.

“Shouldn’t you be away from the manor?” this Tim rolled his eyes and then focused on him, Stray nodded, without really processing the moment.

“hey, you, Tim, right?” he joked “make a boy a favor and get these goggles off me” he asked, voice becoming softly “and if you would be so kindly, would you also let me take a shower?” the kid scoffed but Tim looked at him with a serious look, reaching for his cuffs.

“very well, Tim, I guess, but first I need to take in your testimony, sorry if I couldn’t convince them sooner of letting you go” he said, once Stray got his arms free, letting the weight of his pain reaching to his back and the relief of his muscles reaching his face, he let the other Tim wrap and arm around his shoulder, dragging him near the bat computer despite this robin’s warnings and treats. “Is story time.”

_“It was Friday, the wedding would be that Wednesday, so I had time for one last mission, and it was a simple one, for the good old times sakes, a two day maximum job. I just had to retrieve something from a pompous rich old lady for some weird ass collectors. Simply, right?_

_The problem was that it was in Paris, and that was where everything went to hell._

_Ra’s al Ghul had had problems with momma before, some old wounds momma didn’t talk a lot of, but then the damn dude had started to try and convince me to join him, before robin and I had even start having “a thing” together. One would think that after so many no and denials, the old creep would get a clue. Wasn’t in my case, he somehow knew I was going to be in Paris, all alone, and that Damian wouldn’t know because I was supposed to have quit the business, you know? So I didn’t call him right away, and played along with the geezer. Acted like I didn’t know he was there, acted like I was getting cold feet… which, I guess everyone would suspect I did if I haven’t returned yet and we share the same time clock._

_The thing is, it was just supposed to be taking a weird thing in and old lady’s room and then after receiving the money, run away from Ra’s. Wasn’t so lucky, the rock was also of interest to Ra’s and they kidnaped me in the Tames canal in London, just when I get to relax. I woke up in the desert, of course, and after I plotted my way out, obviously, with a plan to retrieve the damn rock in case it was something to aid to his mass destruction dreams, I was trapped in his room. The damn freak then started his damn discourse._

_You’re such an intelligent creature, far more interesting that those bats, far too beautiful and delicate for my grandson, blah, blah the freak”._

Stray let a shrug and the other Tim added conversationally “yeah, had said stuff like that to me before, but without the “Damian” thing” Stray smiled at him, gulping his coffee and then kept talking.

“he tried to…well, talk me into having telepathic sex or something, I could feel how he wanted nothing more than seeing me all naked there, this poor city boy is just too appetising for those al Ghuls, I can tell you” he winked, not caring that this world’s robin were there or that the other Batman was glaring daggers at him “Too endearing when I want to be” he laughed “The thing is, he tried to kiss me, I kicked him, he tried to tie me up, I kicked his dick and tried to run away, but stupid old me is just too good to the world” his eyes turned soft, looking at his ring finger “He turned me into someone just too…compromised” then he sighed, not offering more explanations of that “…and I had to grab that damn rock, I wasn’t wearing my bag not even my own clothes, and I wasn’t being careful enough, and of course that damn rock had to do something extraordinary for Ra’s to wanting it so bad, so when the damn shit glowed and vibrated, I didn’t fucking know what the fuck was happening. I woke up in a damn alley, a shitty dude tried to mug me, and then I was stealing his bag, and his knife because a boy has to provide for himself in this damn crazy world” shrugged again at the accusation of this world’s Tim eyes “I didn’t kill him, ok! I only made him cry for his mommy, I hid for a while on one of my mommas safe houses, thanks god she existed in that world, I had everything to create again my suit, to look out for me so someone could help me with the damn stupid rock, but then I discovered I was dead, I still had to go home, you know? So of course there was no time to cry over my own tombstone, and then I had to do what I do best, I had to improvise a laboratory, I had to find a way to come back home, and in one of those nights that damn bat freak” he said pointing at Batman Damian “tried to fucking kill me, then tried to send me to Arkham. I had been there before, not as a patient, of course, but is not a clean place for boys like me.”

“I hear you” Tim said, glaring at his Damian “oh, I hear you just fine.”

“right, so, of course I would freak out, I wanted to escape, go back to my own universe, but I had to research more, then the damn rock fucking does its thing again, and I woke up here, tied up by some more bat freaks” Tim hummed, Stray then proceeded to zip down the front of his suit.

“What are you doing?” this Tim asked, not really seeming to care and reaching for something in his bag. He was taller than this Tim, but also this Tim looked deadlier and slightly bulkier than him, there would be no problem figuring out who was who.

“getting naked, story time’s over, I need that shower” he groaned when the heavy suit fell from his shoulder, scratches all over his back and chest “ah… how old are you?” he asked, because he could swear this kid was going through puberty still, but then again, he used to be confused for a twelve year old when he was seventeen.

“Eighteen” Tim answered, tossing some clothes to him “you?” he asked, his poker face was really becoming annoying to him. God, would it kill him to show more interest? Now he understood how people felt around him.

“Twenty eight. Didn’t hit my last grown spurt till I was twenty, sorry but you don’t grow more than this” he then signaled all of him. “But, we become a really sweet eye candy” he tries joking again, and this time this Tim laughs, a snort in his lips.

“Damn right, too bad I’m just a rich boy here, don’t need to be an eye candy” he shrugged.

“oh, but boy” Stray said, locking his arms behind Tim’s neck, pressing his almost naked figure to him, hovering over his lips “You are already an eye candy” he winked and licked his own lips before letting go of this Tim, flustered the younger of the two moved away and signaled to the showers.

“Just go there, try to clear your head, when you come back please don’t be such a pervert.”

“Oh but you like it” he whined but complied.

“I swear to god” Tim sighed once his older self finally disappeared to the showers, giving himself a pep talk before looking at the other Batman. If looking to the future were a pleasant thing, Tim would give himself time to appreciate the calm expression in the face of this older version of Damian, one more pleasant if he had to admit, luckily for him, he didn’t need to. The older man looked at him back and then signaled with a glance at the computer.

“I believe we have work to do.”

“you might be right” he said, moving closer, but still far enough from him, grasping the rock with careful hands, “if Ra’s al Ghul was behind this, then maybe this world’s Ra’s is looking for it too, or at least…he knows about it” he bit inside his cheek, then moved his eyes to the screens “but the risk that he doesn’t know, the possibility that we might be giving him ideas is too much of a risk, we might have to implant some bugs inside, maybe go there myself.”

“What makes you think you wouldn’t suffer the same destiny the one who calls himself Stray suffered in his world?” the other Damian inquired, more intrigued that anything, his Damian huffed.

“My Tim Drake is not such a reckless mere thief, he can handle grandfather” at this, Tim couldn’t help but gap at Damian, until the damn brat glared at him and in a pretentious tone keep adding “Even though I could do it in less time than him, and perfectly too, of course” Tim rolled his eyes, deciding on ignoring the boy, so long trying to keep civil and make a good impression to these other worlds visitants.

“well, I’m sure such a composed Timothy like you is someone worth looking after” the older Damian said, Tim gaze grow confused and he pouted slightly, was this Damian implying he was some sort of delicate specimen that didn’t know how to take care of himself?

“I’m perfectly capable of doing it alone, actually” he said defensively.

The older Damian looked at him with complete seriousness, but his eyes were smiling at him, something in his voice made his skin tingly under it and a shiver run down his spine “oh, I wasn’t talking about that, I’m sure you are more than capable, I just want to be able to observe for a bit longer at your…extraordinary behavior.”

As he finished, still in the far away enough spot where he was, Tim felt like he was being caressed all over by those velvet lips, felt like he could easily melt under this man gaze. His cheeks grown red and he had to avert his eyes away from him, focusing again in the rock, trying to think of a plan, but his mind was already trapped between the fingers of this Damian. Maybe it was something in the family? Sometimes he could felt Bruce’s powers of seductions in his skin when he talked in public, maybe that talent rubbed off in this Damian that grown up with his father. Tim tried not to give him credit, but damn it was difficult.

The older Damian then gave a quiet grunt and his goodbyes and climbed the stairs were Alfred already had prepared the guest rooms for all of these weirdoes, version of themselves. Tim thought he was left alone till his Damian was pressing against the desk in front of him, Tim sighed tiredly and sat down in the chair in front of the screens, letting the teen hover inside his personal space, his Damian was fuming and puffing out his breath like he was trying to make him notice his anger, still, Tim didn’t want to handle that.

“Are you ignoring me?”

“Well, Damian, wasn’t that clever detective deduction? Truly the son of the Batman” Tim answered throwing his arms over his head, abandoning his superficial analysis of the rock, finally looking at his thirteen, almost fourteen year old Damian. In the back of his mind a voice screamed just how well the kid would grow up, he drowned it.

“tt- shut up” Tim was still giving him his attention though, so he started to ramble “why would you accept that? That kind of stare and manner of talk?” Tim elevated an eyebrow.

“Why? Is there something I should read into, Damian? Something you want to share with me?”

“Shut up, Drake, you are impossible to talk to” the red was all over his tiny face and Tim felt his own satisfaction present in his smirk, the kid scowled and stormed up to the manor. Tim sighed, tried to focus again in forming a plan.

But it seemed like no one wanted him to.

The other Tim came out shirtless from the showers, even though Tim made sure to toss him one of his shirts. The too smug version of himself wasn’t as muscular as him; his line of work was different. Being aided by his flexibility much better trained than his.

“Hey baby bird, where is everyone?” Tim sighed for the millionth time, too done to care about this version of him getting comfortable on his lap, instead he began typing some codes, trying to find as many of Ra’s bases as he could to try and guess were the information he wanted was hidden.

“Went to sleep, went to patrol, who knows?” he shrugged.

“Are we all alone?” Stray purred.

“As alone as one can be in a cave flooded by cameras, but yeah, we are alone” he still didn’t look at his own shirtless torso, didn’t react at his own lips caressing his jugular and chin.

“Well, isn’t it interesting?” Stray tried to lower his hand in his chest, but Tim just grabbed his wrist, finally looking at him.

“Look, you can’t fool me, I know myself. You aren’t into whatever you want to portray you are. You just want to distract yourself” Stray, Tim just let himself go limp in his lap, throwing his head back, sighed loudly and groaning.

“clever little shit, should’ve know” he pouted “I miss my Dami, I miss my fiancé and I’m really horny and I thought that doing it with you would be like masturbating but it just felts so wrong and I really miss my ass of a boyfriend, and his stupidly talented dick. I swear to god!” he cried “the things he does to me!” he moaned then, in frustration and mocked pleasure, Tim laughed inside his hand, he never thought he would see himself being this honest, being this loose and exaggerated. He always tried to control himself, hold himself back, being secretive. This Tim was so open. Or maybe he was open just with him. Maybe this Tim was just too emotional. Or maybe Selina education didn’t screw him up like Bruce’s did.

“Well, I’m glad I’m tuning you on, can you imagine me hating myself even when it just another me.”

“Glad that you aren’t grossed out by me talking about dicks and stuff, thought you would be well up in the closet” Stray Tim smirked, red robin shrugged.

“Nah, but not really out either” he pondered his words, then added “not going to hide it either if you already know.”

“I survived coming out, that’s all you gotta know boy.”

“Yeah, but you lived with Selina, not with these dudes” he signaled to anything in the air, making his point by the sole cave “Kon knows” when the other Tim coughed, red robin strained “you don’t know Kon, do you?”

“You mean the superboy kid? I know him, mission went wrong in lexcorp, the dude almost sent me flying out of a thirty floor, that impulse kid saved me, but then that was all” he was now standing, accommodating his pants and rolling a shirt over his head.

“Does young justice exists in your world?”

“The justice league and the titans exist” the man answered, looking confused “haven’t heard of a young justice but maybe they are a secret?” he tried to add when he saw the sad look in Tim’s face. His own face looking so young, so vulnerable.

“Oh damn dude, I just really love my friends” he said “kind of sucks we aren’t friends in every version of us.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like Damian and I are together in every world, either” he said flippantly.

Finally Tim laughed.

“You’re right.”

* * *

Both Tims slept together, the other universe Tim finding comfort in at least a familiar face. Even though he was taller than this Tim, all the clothes the teen gave him fit him just right, oversized shirts and loose sweatpants with fussy socks and a weird headband with bear ears was his look for the day, almost a mirror of this world’s Tim, just that the kid was swimming in his own clothes, his bed hair sticking everywhere and barely pulled back by a bird pin and a purple flower pin, old Tim and young Tim were a bizarre mirror where the older one seemed to be the one who knew his way around and the young one being the one that had to look his feet to not trip over nothing as he almost fell asleep standing in their way to the kitchen.

“God, when was the last time you slept?”

“When was the last time you shaved?” the boy retorted, his hand brushing the short beard.

“Going to shave soon, would have done it by now but seems like someone doesn’t use a razor.”

“Tim’s doesn’t have facial hair” said a cheerful voice behind them; Tim didn’t even look behind to throw his arms to her, being hugged almost immediately. “Doesn’t sleep a lot either, so sleepy Tim is my favorite Tim, he’s such a slut for hugs.”

“Ah, I can relate” the older Tim said, smiling sweetly to this world’s Stephanie.

His world Stephanie began as a vigilante as well, they worked together sometimes just to stop jackass harassing women and innocent people, but otherwise, they were in the gray line of knowing each other, and being more than “friends” and even though Selina wasn’t one to mingle in his relationships, he felt like he would only bring problems to her if he ever took it seriously. Of course, they both loved trouble and ended more than once mingled together and even had a beautiful relationship that ended when the girl had to fake her death. They didn’t come back together afterwards, but they were still the closest of friends.

“Look at you, all cute, so young, a little advise” he began, Steph elevated her eyebrows “don’t ever go red head, I’m saving you, I swear.”

The horrified look on the girl’s face was everything to send him purring down the hallway, down to the kitchen, even in his ridiculous attire, he felt confident on showing just how much sex appeal he had, moving his hips just the right way once upon entering the kitchen, and making sure he knew at least someone was watching him, even though he didn’t even check beforehand, he lifted his own shirt to scratch his chest as he opened the elegant fridge, exposing pale skin and soft muscles, then bend over the fridge, hands over knees, ass presenting itself in the air, humming with a soft curious expression like expecting for something delicious and luxurious to appear there, wasn’t until he heard the soft rasp of someone clearing his throat that he gave a look around the room. Well, his little show was for a big audience that was for sure. He smiled nonchalantly to this world’s Alfred, who looked far younger than the one in his world, and far less amused by his actions.

“ah, here you are” the other Tim said, entering the kitchen with Steph hanging from his neck, legs almost limp as the boy dragged her like he wasn’t even aware he had extra weight on his back. Steph left him to look confusedly to Richard who was looking at the older Tim with an open mouth, unlike his other self, this boy scratched his neck and hair, messing even more his looks, and instead of sexily bending over the fridge, he straight out sat in front of it, crossing his legs like a Buddhist monk, eyes almost closed, mouth open by a silent yawn and little tears in the corner of his eyes. Oh dear god, nothing could be done to make this boy lean to his own sex appeal. The old butler rasped his throat again and the other Tim smiled sheepishly.

“Hi Alfred.”

“good morning, master Timothy” he paused, looking at the older Tim with a raised brown “and… master Timothy” stray smiled again, amused this time and then went straight to the coffee pots, pouring himself a cup before dragging the other boy to sit on a chair close to the table, were both Damian, both Dick Grayson and an unassuming Bruce were already having breakfast. There was a young Cassandra Cain, the little sister in law he so much looked up in silent admiration, and Stephanie followed them, sitting between the older Dick Grayson and this world’s Timothy.

“Good, food. I’m starving!” he almost moaned when he smelled the sweet aroma of the cranberry jam in front of him “oh, I haven’t ate a normal meal since…well, since the wedding appeared in the calendar, you know how that extra weight can appear anytime without one noticing after you hit certain age” he teased, grabbed this world’s Tim hair and then put his headband in him, so at least the kid wouldn’t eat his own hair. “But well, since I’m damn well lost in who knows where, I might as well just eat whatever the fuck I want.”

“Language.”

“Sorry” he chuckled “don’t have a filter here” he pointed to his mouth but then didn’t keep talking; no one really would answer him anyway. The older Dick Grayson was still watching him till he broke down and started whining in Steph’s shoulder.

“it just, this man exudes sex and my little brother it just a geek, cute innocent boy” he cried “I don’t understand, does he grown up to be like that?” Stray bite his toast with sparks glittering his eyes, moaning obscenely in delight, while the other Tim slurped his coffee, a cream moustache in his upper lip. “They aren’t anything alike.”

“It’s because I’m not really him, he’s just…you know, if I had to be a villain” the other Tim shrugged, to this day, Stray was the best “villain” him he had met, fuck his evil Batman self. Then the older Tim pressed him against his chest.

“Aw, and you are my “if I had to be a bat-freak”, so glad you like what you see” he didn’t really was speaking to the older Dick, but the message was delivered anyway as the older man howled louder. The other Tim pushed him aside without venom and throws a glare to the others occupants. Suddenly, the boy was awake. Sleepy Tim might like being hugged, but awake Tim had a reputation to maintain.

“Let’s keep it professional, shall we? If I know my Damian, I know yours might be just as possessive and I don’t want him to get the wrong idea” he almost sounded teasing, Stray rolled his eyes, a soft smile on the corners of his lips as the mention of his intended bring back found memories.

“ah yeah, my love is just that passionate; but I already said it doesn’t count as cheating and I’m sure he won’t complain if there’s more of me to love” he said, then wiggled his eyebrows.

“arggg” Tim groaned “I thought I could tease Damian with that but it only backfires! Don’t say anything more” he blushed, hiding his face behind his hand, refusing to look at the others, Stray looked around the room, the young Damian was trying to look as detached as possible, and the older Damian was the mirror image of Bruce reading the news with a subtle attentive ear to his surroundings. Cassandra wasn’t really giving them attention and the young Dick Grayson was oblivious to the world as he watched videos on a tablet while eating a frosted cupcake. So, teasing this Tim was his best option, as he looked behind him and saw an equal teasing smirk on this world’s Steph.

“oh, I’m not going to talk” he whispered, and as the other Tim looked at him, he started to whistle while putting his palms together, slowly but surely widening the space between his hands, making sure Tim saw and understood what he was implying, and by the embarrassed squeak in the back of his throat, he understood just well “I’m not going to talk at all” he finally stopped widening the length distance between his palms, and then giggled his eyebrows again. He heard someone chocking and just like that he had a hand on his face.

“Oh gods, don’t!” the other Tim whined.

“No, wait, let him finish” countered Steph, laughing loudly.

“Don’t talk about that with kids present” cried out the older Dick, pointing at his young version and at his Damian.

“Don’t talk about that when it’s concerning my son” growled Bruce, a tiny bit of red on his face.

“why?” teased Stray “momma always said you bat freaks like to be praised over these things” this Bruce rolled his eyes and hid his face behind the paper, then the devious man looked at this Tim and this Steph again, lewd smile on his face “indeed, momma tells me everything about all of you, bat freaks” then repeating the action from before, he pointed at Bruce and exposed a well-known fact in his universe.

“Oh god” Tim screamed. Steph mouthed the words “really?” and he mouthed back “really.”

“I don’t understand” chirped the tiny Dick.

“You don’t have to” screamed the big Dick.

“Oh please! You taught me all about it in my universe!” countered Stray, it was a lie, but the shocked eyes of Dick Grayson were worth it. “In fact…” he started to repeat the exact same process of widening the length distance between his hands before throwing his head back in laughter, this Stephanie was giggling and hitting the table while this Tim groaned and the older Dick cried out a loud “noo”.

“if you had had your fill” the older Damian begun, standing loud enough for his chair to drag across the floor, making everyone silent and attentive “I’ll be expecting you back at the cave” he nodded to this world’s Tim, and as his young version nodded, the old Damian disappeared from the room, Stray smirked to himself.

“I still got it” he said, winning some confused glares. Well, technically he didn’t have it but, he kind of did too. “Well, you got it, but it’s like I got it, so” he shrugged his shoulders as he saw this Tim drag himself down to the hallway to follow the older Damian, and then, suddenly like that, Stephanie was all over him asking questions and shouting jokes.


	2. Birds, Bats and Cat.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh, well. Enough distractions. Be a good other world’s Batman, and read those files there. Robin and sunshine robin can try and coordinate the location of Ra’s busiest bases” he commanded, and then gave his back to them, rolling the rock in his palm, elevating it under the light, making the tiniest part of gold reflect on his skin. Smiling with perked interest he finished by “I’m going to have fun with my date”.  
> where Red robin investigates and Stray gets annoyed.  
> is batplane time!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think that Stray is from a universe where everyone in the bat family has theirs shit a bit more together because, well...they're older and they have been through a little bit more, already used to each other and stuff.  
> Red Robin -non the canon one sadly (I think)- is still learning how to be in a big family, being alone in his big house, having only Dick and Bruce at the beginning of robin and having a whole ass big family throw at him in a very chaotic time of hs life were his other family and friends were also dying.  
> Damian-Batman just really yearns and pins and is the embodiment of the dramatic brat Bruce was in the earliest (jah- 80´s 90´s) comics, of course them both are brats, oh god.

Birds, bats and cat.

\--

“Ah, sweet cave, you sure do know how to make the silent too noisy” Tim comically sighed, motioning to the older Damian to follow him to his laboratory, where all of them tried to improve their weapons and investigate the process of the new inventions of their villains, there, in the very clean white superficies, Tim had the mysterious rock, he signaled to the safety aprons, one of them was Bruce’s so Tim didn’t even concerned himself with the possibility of Damian not fitting, then he put his own over his pajamas then the gloves and then safety goggles. “Look, you don’t have to act all “Batman” with us, basically we all know each other, if you want to impress us, you don’t have to” he said, more conversationally than accusingly.

This Damian had been awfully silent and well mannered, only losing his temper with Stray and yet even there, he acted like the perfect embodiment of self-control and stone calm. For a moment he thought this Damian would simple not answer, and only would focus on the important parts of this affair.

“It’s just new to me” he said instead, as Tim looked at him, the older man looked at his hands, at his coat, at his safety goggles.

“Well, yeah, I’m sure it’s new for every one of us” he said without really thinking. Three different universes just collided together and some people were lost thanks to a weird rock they haven’t studied yet. This Damian furrowed his eyebrows together, frowning his lips and looking nervously at his hands, well, as nervous as Damian or Bruce would allow to show they felt to someone else at least when not under pain or pills influence.

“No, not that” he sighed, and then pinned Tim under his gaze, just like the other day. “I’m not used to talk to you, not like this” before he could even think, this man was already inside his bubble, too close, his collarbone just in front of him, he had to throw back his head to meet his eyes. Older Damian wasn’t as tall and broad as Bruce, probably because he was still young, but that didn’t meant that he wasn’t taller and broader than any Tim Drake inside the manor. If Tim wasn’t careful, he would be engulfed into this man invisible embrace.

“Yeah, right, other Tim me is Red hood” he coughed inside his forearm, putting some distance between them. “It’ll get better, eventually. Probably you just started this process, with Dick just starting as robin and all that, it gets better” he spoke softly, remembering Jason and his own infortunes when dealing with him.

“I’m sure it will, it just…” and once again he was too close, for some reason, Tim couldn’t bring himself to care anymore “I used to be the closest to him, and when he died, I vowed to him…I’m trying to keep that promise. He tried to kill Jason, he tried to usurp my identity even, he calls himself a criminal lord, but I know his real self, it just pain me how much he wants to avoid us. Avoid me”. One of his hands started to travel to his arm, pulling him closer, his other hand reaching his face, his thumb over his lips. “I miss him just as much as when he was dead” he lamented. Tim closed his eyes, too lost in the moment. He could feel the other man’s breath closer to his lips, and then, there was nothing. Embarrassed of reading wrong the situation, he looked away, where his Damian was standing with a beaming robin Dick jumping at his side.

“You shouldn’t touch my universe Timothy” his Damian said, murder in his eyes.

“Why not?” Tim asked instead of the older Damian.

“It’s dangerous, immoral. You are not his” he hissed, moving inside the laboratory. “If you need any help with that dumb rock, I’m here, but don’t get close to this man.”

“Damian, don’t talk like that about yourself” Tim rolled his eyes.

“He’s not me” he screamed.

“Damn sure he isn’t. Don’t be a kid.”

“Don’t be a slut.”

Tim, at these words actually felt his chest sting, but only stomped his foot and glared at him.

“Don’t be mad, Dami, is just that in our universe big wing had always been in love with our Timothy” interrupted Dick, and looking innocuously blissful by the entire situation. “Gotta tell Babs and Jay just how lovey dovey these two are. I bet our hood would be so embarrassed, and he’ll cry because of it, and of course Dami would have to console him, isn’t that romantic?” he really was a dreamy kid, but behind all that was the implicit promise and treat that he was planning to take advantage of the whole thing. Tim glared at the older Damian like he was trying to blame that attitude on him.

“Why is your Dick Grayson acting like a wingman?” he accused as he, once again and for the delight of his Damian, put distance between him and the older man. This one looked like was ready to start a long discourse but instead he simply said “Our Stephanie Brown had been more present in his formative years, I’m afraid.”

“Oh god!” he cried out softly, trying to keep inside his laughter “I had to tell Steph! She’s gonna love it!” Not only she did get adult Dick to learn all those tik-toks dances, she even got to turn baby Dick Grayson in a little drama bitch. “Tell me, oh please tell me” he wheezed, his laughter finally erupted, one hand in his stomach as he shook with all his body “Does she quote the kardashians in the comms even as oracle?”

“She does, I’m glad she does it here too, I was growing embarrassed” he joked, Tim looked at him with amusement sparkling in his eyes, Damian made a joke with him and not of him! Ah. The other world Damian made a joke. He cleared his throat, felt his cheeks hurt a bit by the strength in his lips for laughing. Oh, it had been a while since he laughed this much, and only by the image of a Steph in oracle’s chair, surrounding herself by sonic the head hog merchandises and stickers of the bat all over the computers, trying to imitate the voice of Kim k. as she put stupid nicknames to everyone in patrol. It was for something so ridiculous but this Damian shared his amusement. He blushed a bit. Keep it professional.

“Oh, well. Enough distractions. Be a good other world’s Batman, and read those files there. Robin and sunshine robin can try and coordinate the location of Ra’s busiest bases” he commanded, and then gave his back to them, rolling the rock in his palm, elevating it under the light, making the tiniest part of gold reflect on his skin. Smiling with perked interest he finished by “I’m going to have fun with my date.”

* * *

Tim put big earphones over him, the safety goggles hiding his crazy scientific expression and his whole desk running different experiments and test to found more about their components, minerals, possible origins, and possible history, so hunched over all of It that he wasn’t even sensing the movements or the tension on his back.

“I do not approve of you getting closer to my Timothy” Damian laid out, crossing his arms.

“Being as I hardly did nothing, I don’t see motives for your refusal” then he adverted his gaze with a Talia-like final move “Moreover, I do not require your approval. Just Timothy’s.”

“Hood is gonna flip when he listen you two fought over him” Dick said, smiling sweetly “He’s going to be so jealous he’s gonna cry” why he was so obsessed with making Tim cry was beyond anyone of them grasp, as they keep glaring and snarling at each other.

“This Tim is the family’s own. You can’t wish to damp him or try to convince him to leave us once again” he snarled. Yeah, he hated Drake, he hated that he damaged their relationship to the point where the teen still considered him a danger, and he hated just how easily he give up to the charms of this usurper of his attention.

“I apologize” he said “I seem incapable of controlling my own impulses. You’ll understand eventually” he then resumed to his files, Damian, indignantly, took the other robin and started to do their part as well, the sooner they reversed this situation the sooner he’ll stop worrying about Timothy belonging to others version of him. He was possessive, right, but it was just because he needed the upper hand, the ultimatum move, the strategist that was his Timothy.

* * *

“Hey” Stray stopped them when they decided to go up, he didn’t want to leave his Timothy alone, but at least the older him went upstairs too. They fazed him, while the cheerful robin beamed at him, the malicious one glared daggers at him, clearly blaming him for everything.

“Where’s Tim?” he asked, not caring by either of their reactions, acting like he was some kind of diva asking for water. “Not comfortable with a Dick Grayson that just sees me like a little brother” after the fucker tried to turn me into a burrito blanket, I had to leave. He thought to himself, grimacing at the whole situation. In his world, his Dick Grayson was aware of them and only playfully played along the flirting until his Damian came into the picture and started to scold him for it. They weren’t siblings in the way they interacted, more like very friendly acquaintances.

“Oh he is-“started to speak the little Grayson, but the little Damian put his hands over his mouth.

“Around. He is around” he finished, clearly not wanting to tell him. Tim ducked his head, playing the innocent.

“C’mon. Can’t a boy be with himself for a bit?”

“Not if it’s you” Damian crossed his arms and fumed at him, Tim really wanted to pinch his cheeks.

“I just want to play with myself a bit” he whined, licking his lips, relishing in the dirty implied joke.

“Don’t be vulgar” the young Damian squawked, grossed out “my Timothy had never ever acted like the one of you.”

“Oh, he hadn’t learned how to, yet. Or maybe he doesn’t do it in front of you” he replied without missing a beat, batting his eyelashes. “I had listened to very interesting stories, if I may say.”

“tt.”

“My Tim sometimes flirts, but he usually just wants to embarrass big wing, I don’t know if he’s always like that.”

Yeah, because flirting all the time and looking hot as fuck every moment of the day was something very easy to do when you’re crazy. Thought Stray rolling his eyes. Poor Red hood Tim, he sure had to live up to lots of dirty fantasies if things were how he thought they were. He hummed out loud; purposefully looking like he was in front of a very complicated piece of experiment, like when he tried to see what material would supply the other that had just run out whenever he was fixing his suit.

“You kid, are something I must examine” he told the little cheerful robin “I might need to open your brain…umm, but I’m sure you won’t mind” he mocked, closing the distance and hugging loosely the kid’s neck patting his head with clear intention. When the kid shivered and looked up terrified, he smiled again. “Is he down in the cave?” he asked, and the kid only nodded, if he wanted, he could make him shake. He looked over his shoulder to Damian and then stuck out his tongue.

He went down to seek for his other version when a hand grasped him in the corner of the corridor. He could heard the other kids fighting and whining still just some steps away, but couldn’t reach for them, his whole body pressed against a larger one and the wall. One big hand on his mouth and the other wrapped around his chest, holding one of his wrist in front of his sternum. The spicy smell of the man kind of turned him on, but he was more furious than horny right now, besides, it would be impossible that this Damian was his. He wore the Batman suit.

“You don’t play tricks with me, and I let you go” the man said, Stray didn’t have his suit on, he didn’t have his long nails ready for attack in case of, he didn’t have the advantage of a card under his sleeve ready for everything just like that damn bat belt, only, he did. Hiding in the edge of his underwear was a small swizz knife; Stray slowly tried to reach for it, only to have his arm jerked and pressed against the chest of the Batman, his other arm behind his back, their chests pressed in an uncomfortable way, but at least he could speak now.

“You don’t like foreplay, do you?” he tried to kick, taking his advantage as the man looked mortified by what he had said. This Damian wasn’t accustomed to his ways. He was almost free when the man pulled at his arm again, this time pressing him against the wall, his whole body towering over him. Bruce was bigger. Jason was broader, but Damian was still the more dominant of them. Tim bit down on his lip, trying to muffle a groan of pain, glaring up at him. “What do you want, jerk?”

“Talk”.

“Oh, look at that, do you even know how to have a conversation mister?”

“I don’t need to say a word. I need you to talk” he pressed his arm against his own chest, successfully holding him quiet. “Now, why don’t you mewl for me?”

* * *

“I miss my fiancé! I miss his dick, and I miss his dirty socks under the bed!” he kept crying. The damn bat wanted him to tell him everything about his universe, thinking that because he was a villain, he’ll know how to give him advantage over the other villains in his world. Well, he’ll tell, just that he would tell what he wanted to, no what he was ordered to. The man only rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“Don’t talk about my body like that.”

“You can show it to me? please? I really miss how red the-“

“Please” and that please sounded so much like an order “shut up.”

“Why won’t you come here and make me” he winked, laughing as the other man groaned and rubbed all his face. He knew just how much his own Damian hated dirty talk outside the bedroom, so of course he would use it when his only gun was his mouth. These bat freaks have been tying him up since day one, seriously, and wonder woman was the one who liked bondage.

“Seriously, what did my other me saw in you?”

“Why don’t you come here and discovered it?” he was having a kick out of this, it was just so fun. Like when they first met and the eleven year old would explode in stuttering and angry fits of restless reprimand sessions when fifteen year old Tim teased him casually, only calling him sweet pet names and barely kissing him in the cheek once in a while. He only needed to say “baby bat” and bat his eyelashes while pouting and the boy would let him get away with almost anything. He kept teasing him during puberty like he was still a child, until the teen decided he was an old boy and wanted him, hard. So you can imagine how it must feel when the kid you have teased all your life for being too shy around you would suddenly trap you in a passionate hug while looking at your lips and trying to kiss you. They didn’t kiss during a long time, Tim being too surprised every time Damian tried to put a move on him, and Damian paralyzing every time he tried to put a move on Tim. But those were old times and now Damian needed more drastic teasing to even get a little mad. He wasn’t bratty! He only wanted attention.

This Damian in the other hand really needed to get his head out of his ass.

“I doubt he only loves you for your body” the taller man said, pinching him in his legs when he tried to touch him with his toes. Tim only looked at him, suddenly concentrating. “I mean, I wouldn’t be so superficial” and there was something deep in his eyes. Similar to when his Damian wanted to tease him.

He really was about to blush. “aw, stop saying sweet things like that” he tried to mask his own shyness by keeping his teasing, but those familiar eyes looked at him and pinned him under its gaze.

“I’m serious. You must be a wonderful mind, have a more deep knowledge and abilities that those you show” was he being called a bimbo? Why was he still blushing?

“Shut up” now he was about to stutter, adverting his gaze he puffed out breath, inflating his chest and sulking angrily. “You know shit. Let me go see this world’s Tim, I need to speak to them. I refuse speaking to you anymore than this” and just like that the man invaded his personal space, Tim closed his eyes in reflection, trying to get as away as he could tie up like that, ducking his head to hide himself with his own body.

“Now, who is acting shy?” the man teased him, voice caressing the shell of his ear, but then his hands were freed, and the man was again at a comfortable distance. “Such a timid kitty you are.”

“Shut up.”

Tim grabbed his swizz knife in a too elegant and rapid movement, not even allowing the bat to blink, face blank like he was just doing some tedious thing. Hiding everything under the shadow of the night he used to mask his robberies, he showed himself like the predator he truly was after playing so long the part of the innocent oblivious suspected. The surprised look in this Damian almost made him break character, but he was that good in putting on a mask.

“Now baby bat, I’m pissed” he pressed his dagger against his pulse just to emphasize this “I would like it if you just leave this poor city boy alone, because you seem to forget-“he licked his chin, slowly getting up and pressing the heel of his feet in his legs “-that I’m not one of you, bat freaks. If my survival depends on your blood, I’m not hesitating” and before this Batman could answer him, he jumped out of the way, bolting through the hallway, jumping on the walls and getting to the cave in record time without even tiring his breath.

This Tim seemed to sense, though, just how fast his heart was beating.

“Are you fine? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you where I was going to be, thought you already knew the laboratory.”

He shrugged. “I knew you would be here, it just that I didn’t expect for you to being here almost six hours straight. You didn’t even finish your breakfast” he answered, hurrying his words while trying to lean against one of the chairs, he didn’t get closer to him and that only backfired.

“Seriously, are you alright there buddy?” he asked again, standing but sitting again when Stray put his hands up in a “stop” gesture.

“Just a bit overworked. I’m just fine” he finally got his beat under control “gotta share some of my information. Dunno if it of any use, because they’re mostly from my world and that idiotic freak’s” Tim didn’t comment on it and only looked like he was waiting for this moment all day.

“You do tell, we need everything we can get.”

He grinned at this. Of everyone, only this person saw what he was underneath all the leather and the goggles.

He began then with his Intel in Egypt, the one that always helped him when he needed, the one bastard that somehow wasn’t a secret ally to Ra’s. Following to all he got to know about his victim and his clients too. They didn’t want the rock for its secrets; they did want it for all the legends and mysticism behind it, but nothing else. Most of them linked the object with some old gods from a forgotten civilization, your normal typical old rocky when you have been in the job for so long like him or momma, so he just gathered enough of it to not grab a fake. Of course, he also got to a little centuries old paragraph that talked about it, but even that was thousands of years closer to this time that it had been to the actual time of origin of the rock. He thought about aliens at some point, but discarded it after realizing he had been under several sleep deprivation and watching an awful lot of history channel in one of his safe house.

Back to London, he remembered, were some students, now professors that have based their thesis on this paragraph, some linguistics lovers obsessed with Atlantis and shit like that. He didn’t contact them, more than he studied their work superficially, because, really, it was supposed to be a two or four days mission, no more.

“That’s it” Tim exclaimed, under his safety goggles his eyes sparkled with realization “Stray, how would you feel about a little trip to London?” he asked, complicity in his smile, Stray smiled right back, not missing a beat.

“My, I might say you are my new best friend, Timothy Drake-Wayne”

* * *

“I don’t want you to go alone” Bruce said, arms crossed. Tim cocked his hip, lips in a light frown.

“I’m not going alone” Bruce exhaled exasperated; it was good he wasn’t in Batman’s cowl or he would be glared into submission.

“You are not going anywhere with him, alone” he repeated, pointing at Stray in full catlad attire. This one put a hand on his chest, mocking a mortified gasp and sob.

“He’s just like my Brucie” he snickered, only to be glared and shut down. Tim sighed imitating the exasperation in Bruce’s.

“I’m going with him, you like it or not. And besides, Jason is with the outlaws in Ireland, so if I need back up, I’m calling him” Bruce elevated a brown in incredulity “Ok, then, the Titans” he tried, but Bruce only looked more and more angry with every suggestion.

“If I may intervene, father” said the older Damian, looking incredibly smug. “I can keep them company” Bruce shook his head.

“You’re dressed like Batman, I don’t need to bring attention to me” the final blown to Damian’s well intentioned negotiation was when Stray jumped right after Bruce with an angry “And we don’t want you near us.”

“That’s not up to you to decide” he growled, a low, almost unnoticeable growl in the back of his throat, because he didn’t want to be seen like a danger.

“Oh but I already made up my mind. You know, I can be very stubborn” he finished, swimming his hips as he walked away, far away for this Damian to try to speak to him.

“He’s not talking to you” Red robin said, neutral, no emotion in his eyes or face or body language as he approached Bruce, talking to Damian but glaring at Bruce. “He’s angry at you. I suggest you don’t make me angry, too” he finally stopped in front of the bat and glared up “and also, I’m going to London.”

“Over my body.”

“Bruce, you are in no position to deny me this” Bruce then tried to reach for him, only to stop midway and retrieve his hand.

“I’m just worried about you” even over his constipated tone, Tim could hear the emotion of uncertainty.

“I’ve been doing this for years now, I think I know how to take care of my own” then he glanced to Stray’s direction “And he is a grown adult, even engaged man, I think he knows what he is doing.”

“It was his fault they ended in this mess in the first place” Bruce counterattacked.

“And it’s his responsibility to bring order to his chaos. I’m just going to lend him a hand.”

“Are you sure Jason will be close by?” he finally said, uncrossing his arms, blinking twice at a normal speed, a big sign of backing up as he almost didn’t blink in the entire conversation. Tim smiled like the cat that got the cream, a little too cocky.

“Oh, I’m sure, and even if he isn’t there, I’m not a guy who goes through life without backup plans” someone snorted at that, probably Stray, but Tim didn’t see them.

“Ok, you can go. But I’m sending Damian too.”

“I thought you had said two Batmen would bring up too much attention?” he irked his browns; slightly turning to Stray whose face was crumbling a bit. Bruce nodded.

“That’s why I’m sending robin.”

Damn.

* * *

“Drake, tell this other you to keep quiet!” commanded the little robin. Stray purred, even if he found him annoying, it was just so much fun messing up with this kid. And nicer than dealing with the Batman one.

They were in a plane. Annoying rich habits, Stray would have thought, it was so typical, he had to keep a low profile, so of course he had to go in alternative options of transport, unless some of his clients send for him, he wasn’t used to travel in a plane, much less without poor little kids crying around him, or snoring bastards that used him as a pillow. Red robin was piloting, and even if the plane outside seemed very small and discreet, it was extremely spacious inside. The teen boy was sighing under his breath, clearly annoyed by whatever was happening behind him that had Damian whining and ordering him around, but saying nothing.

“It’s just; you look so much like my Dami when he was your age. From the tip of your pointy ears, to the endearing angry pout, the way it seems you’ll break into an angry sobbing mess of frustration because you still don’t know how to correctly express yourself” now, he said it like a tease, like he was mocking him, but underneath it all, there was truth that make him long for his lover, long that shouldn’t be there, because he needed to focus on the mission.

“Drake!” whined again as Stray bopped his nose. It was so weird that this Damian hadn’t attempted to break his hand or the offending bopping finger, instead he just writhed and whined and scowled and it was so much like his Damian when he had recently stopped trying to send every criminal into a comatose state. He never suffered the other end of his lover anger, happen to be silent around him during that time, only appearing in front of him when Nightwing happened to be there too, at first barely giving him a bit of purred nicknames, he had seen the results of his patrol nights, after all, but alongside Nightwing, the boy was calm. Luckily he was used to the bats always trying to use force to keep him quiet, and Jason had tried to kill him just to prove a point to Batman at some period of their life, but this boy had never actually “hurt-hurt” him. Not like this universe kid wanted, at least.

“Enough. Both of you. I’m not some soccer mom, and you aren’t kids” Red robin scolded, then pursed his lips in thought for barely a second “Well, Damian is a stupid kid, but Stray, you are a full grown up adult, don’t embarrass us” Stray then kept his hands to himself, not angry, just extremely bored.

“I’m just giving him a bit of childhood memories, something he would look back at with a bit of “ah, those were the good old days”, you know?” he himself didn’t have any, with his parents always sending him to boarding schools and traveling and then with him getting lost in Gotham’s streets, with his parents thinking he was dead, and police never attempting to search for his body, he had been a ghost all his childhood, following the Batman and robin around, and then with them following him.

“He has Dick, and Steph sometimes, to do that dirty job” Tim joked, then looked back at Stray, who didn’t seem to understand. “I mean, in this universe, Dick is really a self-proclaimed big brother to all of us, he is… that kind of fond memory” he finished with a sour taste in his tongue.

“Yeah, in my universe he was that kind of guy” but he hadn’t got a chance to prove it to me, he added in his head “But I guess he never was my brother, so he is an extremely awkward brother in law, he is that kind of relative.”

“How did that happen?” Tim blurted out, Damian made a gagged expression, and Tim imitated it before taking it back “No, forget it, I don’t want to hear about that” he grimaced, and Damian crossed his arms.

“Obviously I don’t want to hear that horrid nightmare” claimed Damian, only frowning even more.

“Aw c’mon guys” Stray said, smiling smugly “It’s not like it’s a rule to get together in every universe, you don’t have to be tense around the subject.”

“That’s right, besides, Drake had that clone already” for the way he throw his head to the side, pouting with more energy, and making sure to glare at Tim even though this one was looking in front of him without even sparing a glance to him made Stray realize something. It was almost like puppy love, only that puppies followed you around, melted under your touch and only looked up at you with adoration in their big, innocents eyes. Damian was more like a feral kitten. One that had been so mistreated that looked you up with suspicions, in the defensive, expecting you to react violently, so he didn’t even give you the chance to prove him wrong before his attacks, but just like kittens, the longer he spent time with someone, the longer he wanted to get closer without knowing how, because no one had taught him yet. For the way he sometimes saw him climb to this universe Dick Grayson, he could tell he was a sweet kitty when he felt comfortable, but for some reason, he hadn’t open up entirely to this universe Tim, and it just made sense. This universe Tim saw this kitten as only a feral one, understanding the reasons, but not working on actively rubbing the fear and suspicious away. No, Tim reacted like that one person that once the kitten had bitten viciously through his skin, doesn’t try to pet it never again.

“I’m not dating Conner” Tim said, rather roughly.

“Then why do you climb to him, uhm?” Tim tensed visibly. This display of jealousy, -from the point of view of someone that had already realized a couple of things these two hadn’t-, made Stray laugh almost hysterically.

“I don’t climb to him” Tim answered, thumbing his fingers in the control table. “Besides, displays of affection between friends are a normal, human thing, demon.”

“I have friends.”

Tim snorted “yeah, and you boss them around” Damian growled under his breath.

“Oh, I recall a conversation going just like this, almost a déjà vu, with my own Damian” then he smirked, feeling the glare the kid throw at him “well, he was being more honest, but I can read between the lines.”

“There’s nothing to read between the lines” Tim finally snapped, pressing some buttons and then taking off the earphones and the comm too. “Damian is not the Damian you know, he’s not, under any circumstances harboring the same feelings your Damian is. So stop messing with his head.”

“Sure thing. I’ll stop” Stray purred “I’ll say it again, only to give you both a peace of mind, you aren’t forced by the universe to get together, so stop thinking so hard about it.”

A pause. A feeling. Something that crossed the Red robin’s face for long enough to been hardly there.

“I know.”

* * *

In London, they kind of got stuck with their information, the professors gave them enough data to understand better the note, and with the knowledge of all three of them together in their respective fields, they translated a bit of it. Not enough. So they were stuck in the gloomy city, at least for what it took Jason to get there in his motorbike.

“Timbers” first they heard the scream, then they heard the obnoxious engine. A large man in leather jacket and dark jeans waved at them, a characteristic red helmet visible even from the distance, that even if it wasn’t the Red hood helmet, it still attracted a lot of attention. Stray was dressed in all blacks, looking even slimmer than Red robin, and taller thanks to some Goth boots he found in a thrift store along with a big black hat that covered the side of his face. Damian was dressed more like a normal teenager, a normal long green shirt with a white long sleeve one under it and blue jeans and some expensive vans that Tim didn’t know from where he got from, and Tim himself was dressed with a crop top in top of a long sleeve shirt and some ripped jeans with converse and sunglasses. No one looked alike, and it was hard to say if they were from the same group, a necessity in case of needing to get lost in the crown. Jason looked at all three of them, and then pointed at Stray.

“Do I know you?” Stray smiled at him, already linking this guy.

Tim rolled his eyes.

“He looks like ya, replacement. What the fuck? Did Luthor finally clone yer ass?”

“Jason, this is Stray, Stray this is the infamous Red hood” Tim presented them; Jason did a gesture with his hand and then climbed out of his bike.

“Jason Todd! I must say, my universe version of you is slightly less charming than what I see” flirted. Tim rolled his eyes. Seeing himself flirting with his pseudo brothers was getting tiring.

“So ya are Tim” Jason nodded to himself. “Well, it isn’t like the weirdest thing to happen to me all week, so whatever” from there they got straight to the point. Asking Jason for help was surprisingly easy and the difficult part was when the man stubbornly tried to convince them of joining them. In that childish, theatrical way of his were he acted all hurt and under all of the mocking hurt expressions you could see his enthusiasm and fear of being disappointed, like a kid who really wanted to get ice cream but acted like he didn’t wanted it that much.

“C’mon, it’s gonna be awesome. Besides I’m finally able to drink with timbers, here” he said sardonically, Tim huffed under his breath as Stray straight out beamed.

“Oh, that would be good-”

“No, Jason, I’m your Tim, if you’re going to have a drink; it has to be with me!” Jason rolled his eyes, bored.

“But if I had to wait for ya then the novelty would gone, here I have the perfect drink companion, and ya get all jealous over it, and ya don’t even drink.”

“That’s not the point” Tim argued.

“hush. Tim, the adults ’re speaking” Jason mocked him. Tim huffed once again, blushing a bit out of frustration.

“You’re not even that older!”

Damian, who had been silent, more than normal, scoffed and stood between them, not to break a fight, more like he wanted to get their attention fast, The hand that scoffed him in the chest almost made him lost his equilibrium.

“If you idiotic sidekicks are done, we have work to do” Jason snickered and ruffed his hair roughly and Tim relaxed his shoulders and posture, his head feeling a bit fogged, not really listening to whatever those two were saying as the sounds around him mixed together and wrapped themselves in the shell of his ears, buzzing. He didn’t really react when Stray hugged him from behind, resting his hands over his hips. Steph used to hug him like that all the time, because she was slightly taller than him when they started out their relationship all those years ago, and Cassie and Cissie hugged him like that too, absentminded most of the time, like they didn’t even realized they were hugging someone, but since then, Tim got accustomed to it, so he never pointed it out, and never responded to it, either. The familiar, yet so strange feeling of someone resting his chin on his shoulder, and the warm of other body connecting to his back and hips, were some of the main distractions that didn’t allow him to realize that Stray was whispering something in his ear.

“…come back to us, kitten” he whispered, and just like that the fogged blanket of sounds over his ears dissipated, Jason and Damian were still having their conversation, and Tim realized just how much he needed grounding in that exact moment. Maybe, he was sleepy.

“Hey” he face palmed mentally, there were a lot more options of what he could say without sounding like a complete idiot, but he couldn’t think of anything fast enough to deter his embarrassment. He decided to just roll with it, shrugging one shoulder. “What were you saying?”

“You were swaying, kitten; it’s that something you just do?”

Swaying?

Stray wasn’t hugging him; he was supporting him, keeping him on his feet.

His head was light, his body was going limp, and his equilibrium was faltering. Everything was a sign of how much he needed sleep. He had slept in the manor just two days before, after almost four days without closing his eyes for more than thirty seconds, and thought that he had recovered from his exhaustion. Yet again, he hasn’t eaten much, a half-eaten breakfast, some marshmallows and a light brunch and protein bars hardly counted like a full meal. And the investigation was growing cold, even though it had been only three days maximum since they “started”. He was just so tired. He nodded, because it had been too long without an answer from him.

“Jason is right” he finally spoke, loud enough for Damian and the mentioned Jason to stop and look at him expecting more, when Tim didn’t elaborate, Jason exclaimed a victorious “ha”

“What are you saying Drake?”

“I mean, he’s right about having him in the mission. We definitively could use the extra pair of hands” no one commented on how Stray squeezed him more, or how he just gave in the embrace, but they did wanted to point out how utterly simplistic all of his reasoning was, even if he was right.

“Ya heard th’ replacement!” Jason celebrated.

“Drake” Damian growled under his breath, clearly wanting to make Tim change his mind.

“Oh, you know how we promised Bruce to ask for help if we needed it” Stray answered for him. “We just really need that help.”

* * *

They were on the plane again. After a sleepless night reading, researching, forming hypothesis and theories and discarding them and starting the cycle again, they finally translated the apparent location from where the rock came from. An old, ancient temple that was hidden under an ancient Greece city near Albania. It was a weak lead but a lead nonetheless. Damian was napping with his head resting on his fist with his eyebrows frowned while Jason and Stray were talking animatedly. The most Tim had heard from Jason in a very long time and the already familiar teasing chirping from Stray relaxing the whole atmosphere, lulling him with the numbness of their soft voices. They were like old friends, even if in their own universes they didn’t get along with their original version of each other.

“…and then, because he was afraid of dropping her, he started to panic, the little baby girl didn’t even know what was happening and how she got the big bad Damian Wayne to almost shit his pants” he laughed, he had commented about the daughter his Jason had, awakening his curiosity.

“Oh god, I can imagine” cackled Jason, resting his hand on his belly. “But ya haven’t answered how I got the baby” Stray shook his head.

“We don’t know. You appeared one day with a kid in your arms and then said you were a father now and we just let it be” he wrapped a finger in his black hair, pressing his lips together “actually, we don’t know if it is your biological daughter or not, but well, it’s not like anyone in your family has blood ties anyway, no one except Damian and Bruce.”

“What happened to her?”

“She’s in kindergarten now, a very clever little girl, and you have become the very embodiment of a single parent. Of course, you never hanged out the helmet, and you are still hunting down drug lords and stuff, but you have grown softer, Hood. It’s endearing” the last bit was said with a bit of teasing, but Jason didn’t seem to mind.

“What about ya ‘nd the demon spawn?”

“Well, we were going to get married on Wednesday” Stray said, dry humor on his tone “But I guess I’m lucky enough if when I come back he doesn’t want to put my head on a silver plate.”

Jason made a noncommittally hum, then looked him straight to his yes, searching.

“Why?” Stray tried to advert his gaze, but found it impossible. The corner of his lip trembled before he started to answer.

“He might be thinking I got cold feet and ran away. That after all cats and bats don’t mingle. And then he’s going to hunt me down for breaking his heart. Or worst. He might just stop looking, he might just stop giving a damn about me… he might. He should” finally he could look down to his hands, smiling slightly in defeat. “I mean, it would be expected of me” then looked out the window, “maybe we aren’t meant to be after all. I mean, our ages, our pasts, our history together” he looked back at his hands, to where his ring should be resting “…all of that just screams “get out!” you know?”

“But ya couldn’t get out” Jason smiled, like he knew. Stray smiled too, nodding.

“I didn’t want to” because together, they were happy. And they didn’t get that many chances of happiness in their life.

The plane tremble a bit, over in the controllers, Red robin swum his chair, ruffling his bangs out of his face, taking off the earphones and pressing on autopilot now that it just had to be a steady flight for the next thirty minutes.

He didn’t realized he attracted their gazes, and just walked over to were Damian was sitting, a posture that looked uncomfortable. He scoffed, obviously not thinking, dragging his feet and tired movements to grab a blanket and throw it over Damian’s sleepy form.

“Damnit, I gotta call Bruce” the same, tired, dragging feet teen scolded himself in angry whispers as he went to the back of the plane, sitting down on the chairs behind Stray and Jason’s. “Ah, but a little cat-nap never hurts” he snore amused “ha! Cat!” then he was unconscious. Jason looked at him like he was watching a whale in the middle of the ocean. Stray sighed, relieved that he hadn’t had to actually knock up the kid to get him to sleep.

“Well” he stood up, arching his back and stretching his arms above his head, popping some bones as he did. “Time to take over, gonna make sure the kittens don’t wake up, and that this plane lands safely” he laughed when Jason sat behind the controls, mocking a pilot.

“gotta tell ya, cat-guy, ya’re actually a pretty decent guy, I hop’ this other demon spawn remembers that when ya go back to yer universe.”

Stray just smiled, shrugging his shoulders. At their backs, the younger ones slept soundly a necessary heavenly nap.


	3. It always turns out bad.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a little bit of plop. a little bit of flash backs.  
> at first this was supposed to be a smutty fic, but here we are.  
> you can ask me whatever you want, also if you have any head-canons you want to share feel free, i'm two chapters ahead but still i could use some ideas.  
> love you!

It’s always turns out bad.

A hand on his forehead made him shot up awake, not flinching but moving fast enough to clasp the wrist of whoever was touching him. It had been a soothing touch, cold hands in his hot skin that felt just so right, but he wasn’t used to it, and not when he was supposed to be in the middle of a mission and the only people around him had tried to kill him at least twice and the other was a minor criminal from another universe, it’s not like he didn’t trust them enough for this mission, it just… he was in a very unequal position, with him being deep asleep. It took him mere seconds, however, to realise he was on edge and didn’t have a real justification for it, so he forced his primal instincts down, focused his brain trough the numbing feeling of the gentle but painful pound of it and released his grip, looking up through glazed eyes to the owner of the hand.

“Hi birdie” smiled Stray at him, unfazed by the hand grasping down his wrist, and instead resting with more purpose his hand against his forehead. “Didn’t want to wake you up, but you really looked troubled over there.”

Had he been having nightmares again? Tim knew he had them every so often, dreading sleep when it happened and the images that were burn deep under his eyelids, but most of the time he didn’t remember them, and only was aware of the fact over Kon pointing it out for him whenever he stayed at The Tower once.

“I’m fine” he said, maybe more harshly than needed, but Stray didn’t seem to mind. His throat kind of hurt, and his temple throbbed uncomfortably, but he was fine. He had just slept more than he previously thought. They were clearly in the ground now.

“Y’ were out like a shaft, pretender” Jason said from a direction in front of them “Even baby bat here woke up hours ago.”

Tim lifted an arm to his eyes; the white light of the plane really was hard to grow used to when one just woke up.

“Thanks for not letting him kill me or something.”

“tt” Damian looked almost offended “You should thanks me for not letting him do stuff to your face” Tim looked in awe at him, then glared at Jason who shrugged his shoulders in a mocking way.

“Well, it’s not like no one had ever done anything to yer pretty sleepy face” Tim scowled and Stray laughed.

“aww, don’t say stuff like that” then he pressed his cold fingers against his peachy coloured lips “There’s kids present.”

Tim really hated that they bonded over being over twenty one, really, but found it even more surprisingly, considering that Dick acted mortified by the “bedroom” innuendos and Bruce sighed exhausted and uncomfortable. He missed Steph. Needed someone there to remind him he wasn’t going ape shit crazy and that he had, in fact, experience in the subject and not only a superficial knowledge. Instead he only rolled his eyes, like the teenager he was supposed to be and glanced over at Damian who was crossed armed and looking very wary of everything he was listening.

“Please don’t talk about my pretty sleepy face; I’m not in the mood.”

The cold palm was back again on his skin, this time in his neck, grazing softly his nape and lifting the sweaty hair there.

“No, of course not. You broke in a fever” Tim scoffed, almost laughing, but well, it wasn’t the first time he felt sick on a mission, and that had never stopped him before.

“Let’s just get all this over with. Once we get everything we need, I’m going to make sure of sending you home” Stray let him stand on his own, but didn’t move away from him in the slightest while they were preparing to go inside the temple. By the looks of it, they’ll have to drive for a bit, not risking landing anymore near there as to not raise suspicion or undesired attention.

* * *

The temple was, mind you under the impression of someone that spend most of their second life inside one or studying one, not that impressive. Pretty generic even. Old tall walls of solid rock, some ancient columns, some artefacts to hold arms, or to hold torches, but nothing really giving away just how sophisticated was the civilisation that inhabited this place, the fact that was still standing was enough to give away just how smart and developed they were, but nothing more. They had a language, and as far as Tim was concerned, that was enough to be wary of the tramps and his surroundings. Damian seemed to think the same, as his hands twitched at his sides, ready to take on his gadgets in case of. Stray moved silently, like he was actually walking through the security of a prestigious museum to retrieve an ancient gold necklace without making a sound. And Jason straight out exhaled loudly, kicking a rock and walking pass them without a worry in the world.

They all tensed, Jason just kept walking until he was in the centre of the big room, in the other side of the place was some kind of rock chamber, the kind so typically muses would sit down to think and philosophers would lean into their musings, some wide vases on either side of it, it gave the whole room a more academically air, and when Jason sat down in it, groaning sated like the rock was actually a soft couch, they finally let air out of their chests and walked there as well.

“Todd, you just broke the first rule of entering an ancient chamber, and your reckless behaviour could have put the entire mission in jeopardy” Damian scolded, crossing his arms and tilting his chin, when Jason lean more in his sitting position and tilted his chin as well, defiantly, Damian added “And of course, it served your purpose like the guinea pig we needed to activate possible tramps, you walked right here, and saved us precious time.”

“Glad to help baby bat” Jason only sneered, but otherwise, the conversation was far more civil than what Tim would have expected. Stray at his side was looking up, cocking his hips as he thought, Tim wondered what he was planning just when the cat dressed man pushed his hips down, almost like he was doing a squat, and jumped so high, with his legs and arms fully stretched and his entire body arching and flexing draped in the kinetic force of the action, that he really looked like a true cat. Looking up now, Tim saw how Stray accommodated himself in the water channels that were rounding the room, following to side to side of the area to others possible ones. Damian seemed impressed by the display of talent, and Stray looked smugly down at all of them.

“There’s water in here” he said, and the revelation hit them all. It wasn’t much water, only some pools of them here and there, but the fact that there was some alarmed them. It wasn’t supposed to be there. This place was supposedly abandoned but no one could trespass, and being the country one with scarce water sources, no one doubt that given the chance people would fight with teeth over an underground fountain.

Tim debated inside his mind whether to shoot his grapple and go up there too, or if try and jump too. He finally opted by looking around the room and finding places from where others possible rooms would be residing.

“Throw me” demanded at his back Damian to Jason, Jason’s boots echoed in the room and so did his voice.

“Gladly” looking up just a second later, he found Damian clinging to the canals, accepting in reluctant defeat when he couldn’t find his balance the hand that Stray offered him.

“I’m going to that direction” Tim pointed, glancing up at them and then to Jason, who was walking closer to him.

“We’ll go here, then” Stray said, walking down the canal in the opposite direction.

“Comms lines open!”

“See ya later birdies.”

* * *

There wasn’t open danger in the rooms Jason and him scanned at, looking around for anything that would give in some insight on any lead. Jason, with a small notebook translated every word scripted in the rocks and walls, but otherwise, the drawings were pretty self-explanatory.

“God, it was a “human sacrifice” kind of civilisation” Tim commented out loud, mouth clasped shut when they found a tall marble wall sculpted to perfection, not in the style of the Greeks, but pretty damn close, the almost yellowish and dusty superficies only making it look more menacing.

“Think we gonna need a virgin sacrifice to open some kind of magic door?” joked Jason, but his posture gave away how uncomfortable he truly was. Tim shrugged his arms, letting out a shuddering breath as he kept tracing his fingers over the cold superficies. The horrified face of the person being thrown to the chops of some kind of lake caused him to dissociate, detaching himself from the situation, only looking for connections. Lake. Canals, water.

“There’s a lake somewhere” but they hadn’t hear the distinctive rumble of underground waters or anything.

“Think they had any more luck than us?” Jason asked, back resting against some statue. Tim didn’t even glance, if they had, they would have contacted them already.

“Let’s keep going.”

* * *

“What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?” Stray walked behind him, letting him lead through the canals, in their silent quest. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t help but read through the body language of this Damian, too practiced through years of cohabitating with his.

“tt” the kid, maybe thinking he was about to stroke his head, made a jerking move and only walked faster.

“You know, I’m not going to be here for long, you can tell me whatever you want, or not.”

“The reason that you are Drake, and that I don’t know you in the sightless, makes the whole “talk” more dreading and unappealing. So no, Drake, I won’t talk to you.”

“So there is something going on in there” Stray affirmed, pointing at his own head for emphasis. Damian crossed his arms. “Well, maybe I can put some insight to what is troubling you, you know? ‘m very good at it with my Damian” at this the teen looked at him angrily, cheeks blushed.

“Refrain of talking about your marital status with some twisted version of me.”

“Having feelings isn’t twisted. Maybe having feelings for me it is, but it’s not like he woke up one morning and realised all of it in one jump. He took his time…no one is forcing you to reconcile with what you feel for your Tim. He can be an enemy, and ally, a friend, a brother, or just everything and nothing at the same time, if that is what is troubling you.”

“I just don’t understand how I could develop such feelings for you.”

“First, rude” Stray said, jokingly “Second, look at all this” he then proceeded to point at all of his body, posing playfully like Catwoman “Third… it’s a mystery that we’ll never gonna resolve, my dear little robin.”

“You are not helpful, at all” Stray winked at him and they kept walking. Then, the cat, after pounding the words of this Damian, asked almost too quietly.

“Have you ever fallen in love, Damian?”

“tt.”

“C’mon, don’t look at me like that, I’m not here to judge is just” he sighed, eyes looking down, the height distance had grown while they were walking, something he should worry about “You have, a complicated life. Your childhood is honestly shit, and it’s not like you came into a family with open arms ready to kiss the pain away, if I’m not wrong, all the human feelings of compassion and kindness make the memories of pain and indifference that much hurtful. When you have been living to the expectations of someone else, you don’t know anything better, only the satisfaction in your guts every time they look at you remotely approvingly. I can understand that. Then, someone comes and says “You can have fun, you’re allowed to be something else if you want, you’re allowed to disappoint or to not meet their expectations” and something inside of you pours over all of those good feelings that were the only ones you knew and then it dirties them.

And then, you realise, you’ve never been true to yourself, and you’re still not sure if you would ever be. But it was better then, because you didn’t have that constant pain in your chest telling you something is missing. And you’re doing your best but it feels like is not enough” when Damian only looked at him with a frowning pout and sad eyes, Tim didn’t add anything else; he went opening his arms to this kid. Something he should have done with his Damian sooner than it took them to.

“Sometimes” the teen started “I felt like Grayson kindness broke me. Everyone used to be a rival. An obstacle to be eliminated. And now… and now I have to second guess all of my thoughts. I can’t afford to disappoint anyone, I should do better, but it seems like no one sees it. No one cares” when he finished, all of his scrawny body hunched a bit inside his arms and Tim only felt like this kid needed a bit more of whatever Grayson in this universe was doing.

“Someday” Stray begun, stroking his head “You’ll be there someday” he didn’t know what else to tell him.

_Momma always told him that, at first, when he had realised just how little his parents looked out for him, (looking for his body) only to throw a party a month later in his memory, no one really respected the dead child of the Drakes, and just like that his entire presence disappeared. Momma, who had already taken him in, understanding perfectly fine why he didn’t want to go to his parents, didn’t want to talk to the police, had pat him in the back, awkwardly learning to be a mentor. A mother. His parents wouldn’t even look at him, thinking he was a dirty street boy wanting money. And the police wouldn’t even care to investigate, just straight out sent him to juvies._

_He hated the thought more than the streets and he survived under the name of Alvin Draper long enough to see Selina walking down town one night, two men walking close behind her, like predators hunting for an unsuspecting victim, he knew a bit of martial arts already, so he thought he could defend her of the danger, planning on giving her enough time to run, they wouldn’t care for a boy like him and would leave him with a bruised face at most. The night turned out in Selina almost taking the guys down before Tim intervened, surprised she couldn’t even turn around and leave like how she was supposed to. The kid earned a few punches in his stomach and face during the fight, only to singlehandedly knock out one of them and grab a gun from the other._

_Maybe it was because he kept looking up the sky to see if the batman was near that he kept on getting in trouble in narrow alleys, but alas, he didn’t care anymore._

_“Leave her alone” he screamed at the dark, voice doing its best to not tremble. The moment the other dude lifted his hands in surrender and backed away from the alley, Tim left the tension weight him down and dropped the gun like it was fire, only to look at it intensely._

_“It doesn’t worth it” Selina said behind him, voice soft and knowing, like she could read his mind thinking he should keep it._

_“I might need it.”_

_“You’re a kid” she almost screamed at him in a fist of worry that later she would confess was completely a surprise._

_He smiled, sardonically, and lifted the gun, this time feeling all of its weight in his small hands, and then hiding it in the inner pockets of his jacket._

_“Not anymore. I don’t even exist” he said “I’m a ghost.”_

_Selina took him in before he could even understand what he’d said. She had been kind; she had bought him clothes, feed him and guarded him under her name. Just a year later he had turned into Stray. The perfect name for him. A stray kid. A stray kitten._

“How do you know?” Damian asked, grasping his wrist at the absence of something else to grab. Stray shook his head and looked hopefully at his eyes, trying to look honest, dropping his walls for a few seconds.

“I just know, kiddo” he answered and after a long hug, the low voice of Jason separated them, claiming attention.

“Have you found a lake?” they started walking again, closer in distance than before, and focusing again in their surroundings.

“No, nothing alike” he said, smile audible in his voice, then, they started to step into bigger pools of water than the ones before, and as they were descending slightly in altitude, they found more and more water pooling under their feet, once it was above their knees, robin looked at him with excitement visible in his posture and confident smile. Stray smiled back and pressed at his comm.

“Found one, care to share?”

“Be careful. They used to sacrifice people in there” Red robin warned, somehow one could listen to his tired muscles over the comms, but his voice was so authoritative and strong it dismissed everything Stray knew about the kid.

“Be careful of the death? Tt” robin said sarcastically and keep walking until the water was above his tights, smiling because, heh, it was just water and Drake had been wrong once again.

“No, there is some kind of beast there, be careful. If the beast is still there, then is hungry” a sigh. Red robin took a second to speak, second Red hood used to throw a quiet “shit” there. “You’re already too deep, aren’t you?” Stray kept silent, observing robin, there, just a few meters over, was swimming a dark long kind of snake, just that the snake was big and fat enough to be a crocodile, but larger, and it was getting closer to robin, the air got stuck in his throat, he wanted to grab the kid and got him in a safer place, but only got frozen in place, while robin got in a fighting position, grabbing the hand of his katana, narrowing his eyes. “Robin?”

“Beast found” the kid answered and just like that Red robin screamed at Red hood, they could listen just mere seconds of breath getting agitated before Stray jumped over robin, yanking him from the arm and running up to the drier places, he thought it would be enough until he looked behind him, the beast was a kind of weird crocodile, a very snake-like crocodile with large teeth and black scales, he wiped his head everywhere then, without warning, took the kid under his arm.

“What are you doing? I can fight that thing” robin screamed squirming in his arms, Stray only looked determinate in keeping his grasp strong and unwavering. Preparing to jump over the creature to one of the platforms, too small to get comfortable or sit in, but enough for both of them, even if that meant robin had to press closer to him than when they were simply hugging.

“Not if I’m here to stop you, you won’t” he used his long legs to get to the other platform. He tilted his body to regain some equilibrium. Then lifted his arm for robin to use his help to get to the other side, almost lifting him by his armpits like a little trapped cat but not quite. The kid was like and average fourteen year old, but it was true he was pure muscle under that “average height and proportion” and that meant almost 120 pounds of death weight. For fortune for him, robin jumped before using the momentum as he grabbed his arms to lift himself up to the other platform.

“Then what you suggest?”

“Survive, little robin. You shouldn’t tempt a hungry weird beast, not when you look like the best piece of pizza in its eyes” Stray said, jumping again and repeating his actions just like robin did after. When they finally got to a large flat rock connecting with a painted wall, they stopped to look down to the lake, the beast was swimming in circles under them, and down there, where mud was supposed to be, was another kind of floor with some weird faded drawing. The lake was crystal enough, but the waves formed by the large tail of the beast impeded a clear look. They tried to communicate with Red robin again.

“Red hood is in his way, I had a perchance” he answered.

“Red hood here, I’m close to your coordinates. Report” said the broader man, short of breath and trying to muffling his steeps. Were they escaping?

“A large crocodile-like thing is waiting for this snack to get inside its mouth. There’s some kind of drawing in the lake, but can’t see it clearly. There’s a ceiling door just above us, gonna send robin there to investigate” as he said that, robin jumped on his back, and used the extra height to access to the ceiling door.

“The force might be with you” he said, smiling like he wanted to laugh but not finding the moment to let it out, Damian arched his eyebrows and scowled, well, he should had known he wouldn’t understand that reference.

* * *

Back with the red and redder.

Red robin found himself cursing with all his soul that Bruce hadn’t obeyed Alfred and had become a dentist instead of his actual job line. But well. Here they were, two discarded robins fighting with all their might some kind of Indiana Jones tramps that waited until the very last moment to activate.

They did it through, and had found the final piece for their puzzle, some photos obtained with his cowl, and a very long video captured with Red hood’s helmet were more than enough to observe and report later, and then delete some of their most brilliant times escaping second grade little tramps. From the pit of mud, to the quick sand above the seemingly infinite stairs leading to the room where Jason found an actual parchment with what they thought would be the secrets of the rock. There, just beside it, under an elaborated curtain, was the rock that belonged to this universe.

“Take it” said Red hood, shrugging his arms. Tim was unsure, if experience and movies had taught him anything, is that there’s a tramp waiting to wake after the hero takes the object in the pedestal, and it didn’t sound so enjoyable. the tramps before were easy to pass, yeah, maybe the rude big bad Red hood slipped and fell face first in a pit of mud for acting like the fool he was, but otherwise they were harmless, as hood kept chanting for Tim to grab it, Tim thought that maybe It’ll be funny having Jason running from some ridiculous enormous rock. So, being pep pressure by the insistent predecessor figure he had, Tim grabbed the rock without second thoughts, while all the time making jokes about how idiotic Jason was acting with all his references to old adventure movies.

“Hey, pay those heroes some respect” Tim rolled his eyes under the cowl but didn’t answered to him, he hid the rock in one of his utility belt pockets and started walking off of the place when the roof above them trembled and lots of scorpions were released all over them.

Red hood did not scream. But the video would tell otherwise.

“Motherfucker” Tim screamed, half the scorpions were dead, and the other half were panicked by being thrown from their resting place. The tramp was so old, that it only worked like a surprise blind insect rain. Red hood gasped.

“Language.”

“Go fuck yourself” Tim screamed again, running down the stairs, jumping above the mud pit with his bo staff giving him the impulse he needed, just in time to stamp his nose with a moving statue.

“Those damn things are moving!” screamed hood “But how?” it fell in deaf ears, of course. No one cared why they moved, or how they moved. Under them were some lines and they advanced without real coordination. Some of them crumbled without being touched. They were old tramps, someone, maybe half a century ago, took care of them, but not anymore so the tramps were only mildly inconvenient for them, some very pretty annoying inconvenient ones.

“Go figure! Shouldn’t be a problem getting side to side in the room.”

In that moment he remembered the other two with them. They had found the rock, but they haven’t found the lake.

He called Stray just when they crossed the room, asking if they had found any lake or something, and as the ceiling trembled and the statues collided against walls and each other, one pillar fell above him, it wasn’t heavy enough to actually kill him, and hood had been fast enough to roll out of the way. He made a stopped motion to get the pillar off of him, but Tim slapped his hand away, shushing him. “I can free myself, go to them!”

“Found one, care to share?” Stray asked in his ear, and Tim started to kick with all his strength the long pillar while Red hood kept running, just like he told him to.

“Be careful” he warned “they used to sacrifice people in there.”

The damn kid went and made a joke about it. Really, he was passing too much time with Dick and Jon, because his attempts of humor were getting childish instead of poisonous and that awakened an assassin instinct deep asleep inside of him.

He tried to hid how harbouring his breath was getting, and thrown another piece of information about the lake, and the human eater beast.

“Shit” Red hood said after some seconds “You’re already too deep, aren’t you?” a bit of panic made the whole pushing marble pillars off of him difficult, but he did it nonetheless, preparing to run to wherever the kid were. Red hood was already ahead of him, so of course, while his surroundings were crumbling and the already scarce light was disappearing, leading a blind pat, Tim cursed to whoever gave Bruce the idea of going out at night to punch people in the face instead of being a normal plain old good dentist.

He sent Red hood, he would get there before him anyway. He listened to all of them speaking in the comms, but otherwise tried not to get too into the conversation, not while the tramps were awakening in the middle of a dark path. Red robin grabbed a glow stick from one of his pockets, illuminating his feet with glowing green neon light that frankly helped nothing. He’d have been in worse situations before, so everything just seemed tedious at this point. As long as no one tried to fight hand to hand with an unknown creature, everything was fine.

What is he thinking?

Robin is there, of course the ball of hormones and teen angst was ready to fight even the ghost of his dear and loving mother Janet! Right now, and because he was getting sick and tired, the only scary thing he could think about was his own mother, and maybe creepy old men trying to groom their way to his room, but well. He was still running, evading pits and pointy arrows ready to pierce into his skin. Once he could study his universe rock, and the parchment, once he understood if the power of the interdimensional travel was magic or ancient science, or… something in the middle, he could send Stray to his universe, the Batman Damian and robin Dick to theirs, and he could nap for three days straight.

He got into the room they separated first. He could jump to the canal and walk down until he found them, but right now he felt more like breathing a bit, concentrate in a few details before lunching to war once again.

The rock was slightly different.

He put it in front of him, observe it with all of his focus, then, because his lizard brain was curios, he shook the thing slightly in his hands. Nothing. It didn’t glow or anything, he smiled at the tiny rock, no bigger than half of his hand, and when he was about to restocked it into his utility belt, just when he could hear distant steps coming from his left from where the other have been gone, the rock glowed and covered him in yellowish light. Panicked he tried to throw it somewhere far from him.

“Red robin!” screamed Damian just in time for Tim to throw the thing, which didn’t really do anything, as he was already disappearing right in front of them, with the rock and the parchment.

“Holy fuck! Replacement!”

Well.

At least Tim could point out later, when all of this was settled, that the rock worked very similar to those balls from his Japanese games.

* * *

He woke up in the manor.

Why?

Maybe the whole experience was his fever dream.

Maybe Stray was still in his room, and they hadn’t departed yet. Or, because his muscles hurt like a bitch, like he had been running through millennium tramps in the dark trying to keep robin from fighting some kind of crocodile in an ancient temple, he had fainted and they had brought him to the manor so his cold could be treated properly.

He sat down, looked around him. The manor, it was obviously the Wayne manor, but something didn’t quite fell into place.

He strengthened a bit, feeling the pull of his sore muscles before trying to get up. The room pretty much looked like Bruce’s room. The big king size bed. The very expensive-looking closet. The curtains and just the color scheme in general screamed sophisticated. Not a single band poster around. Not a single snack bag trashed around in the floor or sneakers or anything. In fact, it was very immaculate.

He heard the door opening and before he could see the person he started apologizing. Sure enough, if he was still in his universe like he hoped he was, Bruce would be there ready to recollect his report, and maybe scold him a bit for not taking better care of himself. Or maybe just check in his stupid sleep deprived son, being his awkward emotionless mess. He lowered his gaze, focusing in his hands and blurting out an apology.

“I’m sorry Bruce, I should have been more careful with all of this, but Stray didn’t have anything to do with this” he said. Because Bruce didn’t trust Stray. And not matter that it wasn’t technically his Tim, it still struck a nerve inside of him. Old wounds and all that jazz.

Whatever his brain was trying to say had to be silenced as soon as he saw the man that had entered his room. Broad, not as much as Bruce. Tall, not as much as Jason. Blue eyes that were more green than blue. Dark skin very similar to Talia’s own. He didn’t have to be the genius he was supposed to be to get it.

It was Damian. He had seen Damian in his adult version before. Much like the Batman one. But, something was off.

He still had to try and confirm if he wasn’t in his universe with the other Batman, and robin, and his moral grey self.

“Damian?” he called. The guy nodded and walked more surely to the foot of the bed, he visibly fidgeted for a second before taking a seat there. Tim could feel how the bed sunk under his weight.

“Like… Damian Wayne?” he asked again… “Like the one with tiny Dick Grayson?”

“Tiny Grayson?” the man asked, a bit of a smile in his voice. Tim blushed.

Was this the Damian his other self was going to marry?

There was something undeniable gentle in his voice and eyes when he looked at him. More so than the passionate stare from the Batman Damian in the laboratory, or the heated glared from his own Damian. This one was looking at him with something deeper. Something he hadn’t felt towards him in a very long time. And even if he was still in his under armor clothes, he felt completely naked under that loving gaze. 

“You’re the Damian Stray is going to marry?” he finally asked, trying to push his suddenly shyness away.

“If he had said so” the man answered.

“I think… I think he’s… ah! Universe! He is in my universe! Right. I was trying to send him here. Because, well, he is in my universe, and so is another Damian and another Dick, and if you could lend me your bat computer for a bit so I can try and resume my work right away, it would be nice.”

The other Damian, the much more mature, calmer and warmer one, lifted his hand to touch him. He flinched without meaning to. It had been a very long time since someone touched him without him being unconscious. It wasn’t like Stray, which was like touching his own head in some way. This Damian, this… adult, touching him like he was a precious thing, made him realise what Stray said. Loving him, missing him, the one in front of him, Tim could understand.

But it wasn’t his Damian.

“You have a fever, we’ll wait until it comes down” he sighed, brushing his hair behind his ear and then letting his hand rest in his own lap. Tim looked at him with big, surprised eyes, almost pleading, but caught himself before he could do so. Feeling a bit ridiculous, he cough inside his palm and nodded. “You can tell me all you know, so we can work together on this. I, too, would like for my Timothy to return.”

“You’re…” he started, unsure. If it was him, and again, technically It was, he wouldn’t be that happy if his feelings were divulged by someone else. But, Stray and this Damian were supposed to get married, maybe it was fine for him to tell this Damian all about what Stray said freely in his own universe. “You’re not angry with him?”

“How could I?” Damian answered, sigh there but not quite. “I’m just a bit annoyed things like this keep happening to us” Tim smiled at this, closed his eyes behind a peaceful expression and said with an equally calm voice “Yeah, me too.”


	4. the bird is in another nest.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so, tim is in another place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my reverse robin au goes a little like this:  
> ages reverses. villains and main battles are not.  
> teams might have changed. reactions might be different, but it's the same dynamic all the way, from the guy who wants to be a better brother figure after the epic fail in his past. the dude that wanted to be independent and make batman proud and ended being killed. the kid who for the first time experiences the love of a father and having siblings. the broken kid who has to relearn who to live a totally different culture, plus his father-figure dies just time after he's taking in and ends up bonding with his older-brother-figure.

* * *

And the bird is in another nest.

“Damn it! That stuff works here too” screamed Stray kicking the floor and growling curses under his breath, like, yeah, he was essentially Tim, but this Tim somehow was smarter than him. In his world he cultivated himself just well and was above average all the way, he could hack about any security system in the world and more, but his expertise limited in that all his works were about stealing some artifact for a client, for momma or himself, or rescue himself from someone wanting to take revenge on him or momma, or straight out disabling the league of assassins that one time they took momma and he was running under lots of stress and found out exploding bases was as good as sex in relieving it. This Tim did that for breakfast and more. He had dealt more than once with interdimensional travels and stuff. And now, he was trapped in no one know where. He only hoped he was in a benevolent universe that didn’t want his head in a silver plate or something.

“This sucks, replacement was my favorite brother” Jason said like he was mourning over the spot they last seen Tim standing.

“You tried to kill him?” Damian furrowed his browns together. He hadn’t seen anyone not having Grayson as their favorite brother before. Why drake, anyway? Even the always busy Thomas was much better of an option. Drake wasn’t supposed to be favored by anyone that wasn’t-

“Yeah, but the kid was enough of a bastard to be worth knowing, and he’s like… a puppy-snake or something. Like, he’s so forgiving but at the same time so malicious, the perfect balance to be my favorite brother. And, he was kinda like my fanboy, I can’t hate my own fans dude, that’s just fucked up.”

Damian actually crocked his head to the side in confusion. Well. That didn’t answer anything.

Right now wasn’t the moment to pounder about Todd’s favoritism over Drake; they needed to know where he had gone and how to bring him back. He’ll have to hope that the annoying version of himself in the cave had done more progress than them. Besides, Todd clearly had information in the recording of his helmet’s camera. They would find a solution to all this madness; He had to silence the little aching on his chest. They would find their Timothy.

* * *

“Tim what!?” he should have known father would react badly. Just as he informed him that the whereabouts of Drake were unknowns, Bruce glared at Stray, then at Jason for some reason and then, shaking his head, glared down at Damian. He knew it wasn’t a “murderous, you’re in so much trouble young man” kind of glare, but he found it offensive nonetheless that his father would think badly of him for even a second. Long way they had behind, long way they have in front.

“The rock glowed and sucked baby bird to another universe or something” Todd answered, Stray was just behind him, trying to hid his black form even more under the shadow of the bulky Red Hood. Damian shrugged his arms when Stray arched a brow at him, commentary made clear by the pointed glare he thrown at Bruce.

“For god’s sake!” Bruce was passing around, hands behind his back as he walked in a thoughtful manner, sighing loudly for everyone and their cousins to hear.

“It’s alright! We can call Zatanna and ask her the coordinates of this universe where he is in! I mean, after what we looked over, is obviously something to do with magic” said Todd in a relaxed tone, hands in his jeans pockets, head thrown back. Stray was clinging to him like a little kid trying to get an up from the tallest person in the room, when he thought of this universe Timothy trying to cling in that manner to Todd his stomach did a funny uncomfortable thing. He had to concentrate in Todd’s words for now, so he pushed it back. He nodded solemnly when his father’s eyes landed on him.

“Todd’s mostly right” he then walked in front of the other two adult men in the cave “We looked over the data Timothy saved in his laptop, as well as the camera records the Lents and the helmet captured before he was transported to mysterious locations” his father seemed to consider his words when an annoying voice he hoped once to grow into someday made itself heard.

“Partly, I’m afraid. Magic is must certainly involucrate, but upon study, the artifact is clearly a machine. The instructions and the civilization seemed to made contact with an alien organization a millennium ago. The tramps I have analyzed in Timothy’s records seems to be moderns but not actualized enough or being taken care of its functioning. I tried to track down the old owners of the land where the old temple was situated” Batman Damian said as he descended the stairs coming from the grandfather clock. Bruce perked in interest at this, crossing his arms in a defensive but open way. Only Batman could send so many mixed signals like this one.

Damian scowled upon hearing him.

Stray praised himself silently for thinking of the alien theory before anyone of them –even when he was extremely sleep-deprived watching a buzzy history channel documental when he did-

“And what have you found?” Bruce asked voice low.

Jason asked Stray who the fuck the dude was. Stray answered with a sneer that it was Damian. Jason actually whipped a tear at the brooding form of the smallest member of the family, mocking an emotional cry while saying how he didn’t believe in how fast the time passed by. This universe Damian rolled his eyes.

“We found out the owner went cold long, long ago” little Dick Grayson said, climbing Bruce like it was a natural thing to do, and by the way Bruce didn’t even flinched when everyone else seemed been taken by surprise, it used to be normal enough.

“How long?”

Little Dick Grayson mussed by himself out loud, crunching a cookie in his hand while trying to catch the remains in his mouth.

“Like fifty years or so” he finally said, looking over at his universe Batman, who nodded and closed the distance a bit more, mere feet apart as he showed Bruce his own findings.

“At first, the owners knew about the rock. Then, they only knew about the sacrifices, according to their own inside-legends the rock was just a myth. The families that lived there married into each other until there weren’t that many members anymore, narrowing the families to about three in the twelfth century. They dispersed around Europe after forming a league, kind of, and then, no core member actually lived there for almost five hundred years, only keeping the land by having their daughters and spouses living there, no one really believing the stories about the old civilization living there. There were actually lots of legal problems about the land, but they somehow got support enough to keep it. About a century ago the last member of the family discovered the under temple in their land, and ordered to construct the traps, thus, their eccentric fantasy connotations. The last member, as robin said, died about fifty years ago, the land passed to be the country property and touristic attraction and the temple remained secret or mostly unknown. Until now.”

“That’s impressive Damian” Bruce said, “But I want to hear more about the alien technology of the rock.”

“Of course” Batman Damian said, and pointed his chin to Tim’s laboratory, both of them stopped shortly in the door only for Bruce to take Dick in his arms and lowering him softly to the floor, patting his head and sending him away. After a second, the ignored group snorted in frustration.

“Show up” snarled Todd.

“Insufferable” huffed Damian.

“Little shit” growled Stray.

* * *

This dimension Selina was touchier than his own. The moment Tim and this dimension Damian went down to eat breakfast, she jumped him, hugging his head against her breast like he was some kind of baby, afraid of touching anywhere that wasn’t her arms, and these being off of reach for him, Tim let his body go limp in her arms, just trying to make eye contact with whoever was smart enough to realize Tim was a whole four centimeters or so shorter than the one they lived with. He saw something in Bruce’s eyes, thinking that maybe he would do something, but then this dimension Dick Grayson said with an amused tone “He looks a bit too small, don’t you think Selina?”

Oh, it wasn’t the overly affectionate Dick Grayson, self-proclaimed older brother, and positive older male figure in Tim’s life. It was because this Tim wasn’t the boy that used to follow Dick around like a lost puppy, nor was the Tim that fought against every odd to keep his place beside Bruce. This Tim grew up with Selina, at least his most important formative years. He spent most of his teen years in the moral gray line where both worlds sometimes collided but otherwise he wasn’t more than extended family at this point.

It was weird. How the only two familiar people in his life were practically strangers to him now, more like some acquaintances or something, while two strangers to him looked at him like he was a precious thing.

“Hi, I’m Tim Drake, from other universe” he finally said once Selina let him go, the confusion in the woman’s face was soon erased by amusement and a too mischievous smile.

“Wanted to try new things, son in law?” she asked at Damian, nudging his sides. The older male, -oh god, Damian was older than him in this universe but Stray back in his universe was older than both Damian! So where was him?! Was he the youngest Tim? Was he the shortest? Why was he worrying about it? - Rolled his eyes and huffed but it was almost as if at any moment he would break in giggles. Manly giggles.

“How did this happen?” asked Bruce, a lot much older Bruce that practically covered both Tim and Selina in his shadow. Tim felt himself grown nervous even though it wasn’t new for him to be covered in the bat’s shadow.

“Oh, rock. You see, there was a rock. Alien tech, though we thought it was magic at first” he said “I mean, I only noticed it was technology because of course it functions without any magic word or instruction besides shaking it or awakening, based on my own experience with this stuff. And anyway, I don’t know how to turning on or how to go back to my universe, but I’m sure I’ll manage if you lend me the laboratory downstairs” he asked, hopefully as he glanced through his eyelashes at Bruce. He had started to do that purposefully after he became robin, watching the reactions he got when he did it and when he didn’t do it. Bruce, of course being the old soul he was weak to any child that gave him big innocent eyes, fell for it more than he would admit to, and even know with eighteen years existing, he still got it. Bruce seemed taken aback for an instance, hand going to his heart as if he was trying to understand the thrum in his chest, Selina looked at him with wicked eyes, as always seeing right through him.

“Oh! My Tim never learned to do those eyes!” she exclaimed as she hugged him again, this time with less familiarity for her and more of an amusing tone in her voice, glancing at Bruce with the exact same look, making her usual provocative and strong being look innocent and childish like it was a glove. “Can we keep him, Bruce?”

Bruce sighed and shook his head, but then pined Tim under his look and nodded, Selina beamed at his side, and as she went again to hug him against her chest, Bruce grabbed her by the waist, successfully keeping her in the kitchen when Damian grabbed his wrist and took him downstairs. “Selina, you can’t keep him!”

“But you promised!”

“When did I do such thing?”

Damian smiled down at him, tenderly, oh; he was such a gentle older man kind of figure, the type Bruce had been when Tim was still a little kid getting lost at parties and stuff, but…with Damian. He could understand why Stray was so attracted to him, god, he started to feel attracted to him as well, in a “crush I’ll never make a move with because they’re better as a fantasy in my mind anyway” kid of way. If Damian would grow up to be like this Damian, oh, how lucky would be the person who got to have his heart in their hands. The same with the Damian Batman who was undoubtedly still in his universe, that kind of severe deep way they looked you in the eyes, the way they worn their passion in their sleeves, that kind of lewd smile that only reached his eyes but not his lips when he was talking to Tim, oh, seriously speaking, if Damian grow up to be like any of those two, Tim would likely cry of jealousy and envy at the same time he delighted in the view as an indulgent pastime when he got too bored in board meetings or family diners.

“In what are you thinking?” Damian asked, arm offered for Tim to take and let himself be escorted. Tim smiled up at him like he would to Bruce at his robins’ days. Oh, he just really admired Bruce back then, he stills does, but it’s not the same blind worshiper admiration anymore.

“Just how unfair genetics are” he answered, his eyes looking more amused than lost in thought, and Damian had to crock his head to the side, observing him at the vague smile.

“I don’t understand” Tim chuckled a bit at this, this Damian was seriously too gentle looking, too mature. Like a history professor in one of those coming of age movies.

“No, no. sorry, is just that you, and the other Damian and my Dami too, all of you have the same genetics, still you are so different and so alike, it’s like… the best of Bruce and the best of Talia all mixed in a gold pot! While I got my mother’s height and my father’s body” he laughed. The Batman Damian was a stunning kind of rude person, the kind that was too professional all the time. His Dami was the cute, mean one. “Well, I got to grow up a bit more; at least Stray is taller than me, so there’s hope.”

“I mostly find unfair” Damian begun, arm pressed against his ribs, making Tim hand press hard against his arms and ribs too, “…how clear are your eyes, and how silky is your hair, how can someone in our “life style” look so young and lively” Tim patted his bicep at this, amusement still clear in every bit of his body language and face.

“I think you are confusing me with your Tim” then he pointed at himself with his free hand “You can see here, that I’m still pretty out of shape, and on top of that, I’m a little creep. Nothing like the stylish and handsome Stray you know.”

Damian laughed, more like a breathless chuckle, without doubt Alfred’s touch.

“You might look nothing like my beloved, and still you’re endearing, I’m sure under good care you would feel as handsome as you see my beloved. I mean, I know how difficult is being a teenager.”

“Hey!” Damian laughed again “I’m just like, what, three years younger than you.”

“Actually, I’m 23, so, five years. And even if it were less, still, I’m the adult one here.”

“buhu” Tim mocked “How many years have you been dreaming with saying that to me?”

Damian sighed, the kind of sigh that Bruce made when he was pleased, happy. “You both are the same in where it matters” he commented, just in front of the grandfather clock.

And maybe he was being courteous, maybe he was being rocked gently in the numb sensation of his eyes, but he nodded to him and told him he thought just the same of him. A rose with any other name would still smell like rose.

* * *

“He’s nothing like me!” the young teenager screeched over the sounds of spoons colliding with bowls and cups. The Tim imposter had the audacity of rolling his eyes at him and Jason snickered under his breath, hiding behind his cup of tea. Richard was the one that actually argued with him out loud.

“You kinda are” he said, wiping cream off of his younger self, pinching his cheeks just so. He wasn’t jealous of a child like Grayson, but he was getting pissed off by his way of getting too comfortable with his older brother.

“I’m not” he returned, eyes glaring harder “He’s arrogant, a know it all!” most importantly, he messes with other people stuff, and had tried to gain his father and Timothy’s affections since day one. Thing he had still trouble with.

“But Damian!” exclaimed Richard, slurping the left over milk of his cereal breakfast “You are a lot like him; I’m not trying to point fingers, baby bat! You know I love you very very much! But when you just arrived here, you were just like him. Now you are a sunshine! But yeah, you’re in the kind of in the bratty side of puberty and the resemblance is too much” he glared at him harder. Finally he crossed his arms in front of his chest with a dismissive air.

“And I thought I could call you a brother!”

The utter shocked face of Richard was muffled by the loud laugh of Todd and the whistle of the other Drake as both of them clamped and snapped their fingers.

“That got to hurt!”

“Poor Dickie, aren’t teenagers hard and stuff?” joked Stray, hugging _his_ older brother from behind, resting his chin in the older shoulder as Richard took one of his long hands and wiped fake tears with it.

“Now I understand why Bruce didn’t want to talk to me during those years about… feelings.”

“You were jealous of Talia” Jason said as a matter of fact.

“Shut up” Richard shrieked embarrassed to the point of flushing, Damian looked at Jason with interest, something he would ask about latter. “I was an only child, a stunning shadow, we were the dynamic duo! Not the dynamic duo plus Bruce’s girlfriend” Richard defended himself, Stray laughed again, letting go of his soft grasp on the older to focus on the kid, pinching the soft kid’s cheeks despite the cries of tiny Dick. 

“You are incorrigible Grayson” Damian said “nothing would have happened except the nature of life following its course. If I don’t bad remember, you were courting Gordon and Starfire since your robin’s days, wouldn’t you call that hypocrisy?” Richard looked like a fish as he opened his mouth without any sound emerging from him.

Jason clamped his hands against the table as if he were playing the drums.

“Tell ‘im, little demon.”

“You don’t talk, I know far more than I let out” he threatened, Jason narrowed his eyes at him, in open challenge, but let go of the matter as soon as Stray let out a yawn turned into whining moan as tiny Richard Grayson yawned in his arms.

“Are you tired little robin?”

“I am, but, I have to wait until Batman comes up, so he can update me in the case” the kid answered, pure passion for the work keeping him awake at this point. Stray caressed his hair a bit, and even if mere seconds ago, he was practically molesting the kid pinching his cheeks and nose like an old lonely grandmother, the kid fell to his side, resting his head against his chest and yawning one more time.

“You are a lot like what Jay tells me you are like” Stray hummed, and then looked at Jason who took the plates and cups to wash them. “Yeah, I mean, I know you aren’t my universe Tim” he added, playing with his hands “But, well, Jay always said you used to be so kind, so heroic.”

“Well kid, I’m not super hero myself… I wouldn’t call myself that” tiny Dick laughed.

“No, but you are that grey space between this universe Tim, who seems too… well, quiet” he gestured to anywhere in particular “and my universe Tim, who is… well, too angry.”

“What happened in your universe?” asked Dick. Damian had taken his seat beside him now, and was letting him play with his hair despite it being buried under so much hair gel. The older one looked behind his shoulder, at Jason doing the dishes with a nonchalant air. “I mean… how did Tim become Red hood?”

Tiny Richard looked conflicted before speaking in a tiny voice.

“I don’t know the details. Damian had just gone to college, Tim had been robin for a while by then, he lived alone in Drake manor, I don’t really know what happened to his parents. He had been having troubles with Bruce. You see, Bruce wanted to have him living in the manor, be as safe as he could be. Tim believed in independency. He didn’t want to be the subject of pity. To prove this, he tried to confront on his own a big case. Huge. The end of the world kind of case” he paused. Yawned a bit, accommodated more in Stray’s lap. “He went alone. Bruce was occupied with league stuff, Damian was away in college, Steph had just found out she was pregnant. So he was alone.”

“He didn’t run off?”

“Was joker involved with the case?” asked Jason, gazing at Stray and Dick like he was being told a scary story or something, eyebrows raised but hard frown in his lips, like he didn’t want to believe word about it.

“No” tiny Richard said. Damian felt a rock in his throat. The way the kid looked at him, pity and a trained blackness as he pronounced the name of the demon’s head. “Ra’s.”

“God.”

“He did everything, he saved everyone. He really did. But there was no one who could save him.” He paused for a bit, Stray caressed his head and it felt simply too good, he felt more at ease and yet… “He was dead. Steph called Bruce as soon as she found out Tim suicidal plan. And even there, he only arrived to find Tim already dead. He almost killed the demon’s head, but he got away.”

“auch” Stray laughed “Somehow, hearing how that creep ruins my life in every universe possible is incredibly nauseating.” 

“Yeah. Tim came back; Ra’s wanted him as his heir, so he revived him with the pit. Tim was trained for a bit, Talia didn’t want him there, so she helped him escape. The details are fussy; we wouldn’t have known Talia helped him if she hadn't said so herself. After that he tried to reveal all our identities, well, mine not because I was still living with mom and dad at the circus. He tried to kill Jay too. And if it weren’t for Bruce and Damian stopping him, the identities of all the JLA and Titans would be known, and Ra’s would be dead for good. Now, he helps from time to time but mostly explodes things now and then and bullies the big sharks from big companies for doing illegal things under the GCPD and Batman’s nose. Damian isn’t happy with that. Some time ago, Bruce died, Tim says he’s alive, but it could be the pit talking. Jay mostly tries to support him, that’s why he has so many problems with Damian. Apparently he had been openly having contact with the league; Damian doesn’t want Jay getting involved. He wants to throw Tim to Arkham, or at least keeping him home to help him heal. I don’t know, really. I just know he doesn’t want Tim to die again.”

“It sounds a bit like what happened here. Just, Bruce “died” and almost a while after Tim almost dies too because he was trying to defeat Ra’s in his game. He would have died, if I wasn’t there at that time” now some things fell into place. The order was all wrong, but it was the same. That means…

“Now, about the joker thing. He almost killed Jay, Damian luckily saved him before it could happen, but yeah, I get that something similar must have happened here?”

So Tim, the second one died, because his older brother wasn’t there to save him. And jay, the third one, survived because his older brother luckily got there in time. It was the same yet not. It was the same old tale, written down multiple times, yet it was entirely new, something Dick had trouble to understand. He wasn’t there at the time. But he was there, here. In a sense, he saw himself in this adult version of Damian more than in his own child version.

“Well. Universes are weird like that” Jason said as he tossed an imaginary ball over his shoulder and pointed a look at Damian who was clenching his jaw and hands, apparently taking his sweet time to felt guilty over something he didn’t even have power over. Then added with a soft tired sigh “C’mon demon spawn, I’ll make some tea, you help me with the cups” it didn’t matter they had just finished breakfast. Damian needed the distraction now. Child Dick fell asleep while they were boiling the water and adult Dick had gone downstairs to talk Bruce into going to sleep. While that happened Stray started to hum a little song under his breath, looking at his nails and trying to fix the broken one on his thump.

“Well, story time is over” he sighed a while later –just as he made sure that the kid sleeping wasn’t going to awake- as Jason and Damian were finishing their teas. He smiled at them and then took the head of the kid resting on his ribs, placed his skinny legs over his owns and stood up “I’m going to bed, tell the horrible man if he wants to find his robin to have better found out a way to bring my little Tim back.”

“Will do” whispered-shouted Jason. After they were gone too, the older man looked at Damian with a very smug smile on his lips.

“So… Stray and other you…-“he began but Damian glared at him.

“Horrible development of events, I am sure. Probably my other self didn’t grow a common sense and let himself be seduced by cheap personalities like that.” He was lying; a little voice in his head cursed him as he did.

“That, and you like cats” Damian coughed a bit and Jason laughed at his flush. “Ah, it’s the first time you see it that way, demon?”

“There’s no way it happened like that, I’m certain of it”.

Because that innocuous person had shown him a kindness too big for him to be loved as part of a collection and not his own self. It was there, if he asked Stray would answer him, but it was just too personal for Damian to just ask and invade and claim ownership over something he didn’t experience in his own skin, and thus he was condemned feeling confused and angry and a tiny bit frustrated.

He couldn’t understand it really but that story wasn’t for him, it wasn’t for his Tim either, not even for Jason who didn’t even care that much.

“They gonna get married after he returns to his universe. And ta other Damian –the batman one-clearly wants in in his Tim’s pants. Where does that left ya?” he asked in a teasing voice, Damian knew Jason didn’t mean anything he said and only wanted to get a reaction out of him. Damian shrugged his arms.

“Those versions of Drake are interesting enough, unlike our Drake” Jason laughed and rubbed his knuckles against his scalp, burning the skin there a little and making the room rumble with his voice, he shook his head fondly and drunk a bit of his tea, only to lower his cup when he realized there was nothing less.

“I’m going to mess up with Bruce for a bit, you go do your thing” Damian didn’t know what he meant but the tone annoyed him nonetheless making him scowl at his empty cup too.

“tt.”

“That’s the spirit” Jason exclaimed encouragingly, going down the hall with a final salute. Damian was all alone in the kitchen, left in peace to observe the day light wavering in the kitchen and the green outside look alive and comfy enough to go out there and draw a bit of alive nature, at least while Grayson, Jason and father were down in the cave and Stray and other Grayson were sleeping and Brown was at her college. He went to the library to grab the sketchbook he kept in there along a box of coal pencil and went out to relax observing the wandering birds picking the worms in the earth.

For now, while the world was at peace, preparing, resting before the battle, Damian was just another normal kid in his garden.

* * *

The robin Dick Grayson was an octopus when awake and when sleeping, Stray thought to himself. There was something about kids that he hated but knew that was comforting to some parents and siblings, and it was that they were hellish warm while sleeping, so much than even the kid themselves were covered by a light sheet of sweat from forehead to arms and legs, making their skin that much more sticky and smelly. It wasn’t like little kids smelled specially bad, but it wasn’t like Stray liked to had a harmful of child clinging to his skin and making him smell like a mix of expensive cologne and earthy mud induced sweat. At least little Dick Grayson rested his head in his collarbone, the perfect place for Stray to have the soft kid-shampoo right under his nose. It was so awfully warm, however, that he couldn’t relax, and woke up feeling tired and pressured. He sighed, it had been a while since he woke up, and the little robin didn’t seem like he would jump awake any moment soon.

He rested one of his hands in the little head, molding the wild mop of hair so it wasn’t sticking everywhere and relaxed under the smaller body so no even the up and down of his ribcage could startle the kid awake. It wasn’t dark in the room, but everything was closed, from the windows to the doors of the bedroom and the bathroom. The warm air is heavy just like the pass of time. Tim felt like a kid again, like when he used to sleep after school all the afternoon until dinner and time just wasn’t something he was concerning himself with. If he focused enough, he could almost hear the tik tak of the clock and the soft humming of the computer inside this Tim’s room. He rolled his head in the pillow, inhaling instead of soft shampoo and sweaty child’s hair a soft lavender conditioner and coffee grains, and just a tiny bit of smog. Somehow, this Tim smelled like him, but he was so used to have his smell mixed with Damian’s that he had to search deep in his memory to recognize the aroma.

The door opened with a soft click, and having his head buried as deep as he could in the pillow and a whole child covering from collarbone to hip, he didn’t care lifting his eyes to see who was seeing them slept. A shadow hovered over them as did the presence of someone who was just observing. Stray opted for faking a sleepy sigh, to see if the other was afraid of waking them up.

A big hand, with slightly hairy knuckles, rasped the underside of his chin, tickling with only his warm accidental touch all the skin there. The hand was doing what Tim has been doing moments ago, caressing the head of the sleepy kid. He rolled his head so he could look at the other person in the eyes. He was so ready to banter with the other Damian if it was him. Instead he blinking in silent surprise at Bruce, who upon seeing him awake, sat down in the bed and openly caressed the little Dick Grayson.

“Is a big joy for a parent to see their sons as the little kids they used to be-“he commented, Stray nodded and squirmed under little Dick Grayson so he could put some distance between him and Bruce. “It is also a big joy for a parent to see their little boys grow up into adults” he sighed “and even if you both aren’t supposed to be here, I can’t help myself.”

“You feel nostalgic” Stray yawned, “That, I can understand”. Bruce frowned a bit for his words but otherwise kept petting the kid and sighing happily and otherwise looking like a tired dad. Tim missed having a dad for like…half the year he spent in the streets and getting used to his new momma, but otherwise it didn’t make a big difference in his life. So it was weird, seeing this open affection towards someone’s kid. It wasn’t envy, it wasn’t sadness, as he looked at Bruce smile and sigh, the same way his Bruce did with his Damian, he felt numb inside. It wasn’t something he should be seeing, his universe didn’t want him to have one all those years ago, and it wasn’t going to give him one now, not even if he married into the family like he was supposed to do, not even if he saw Bruce as the closest things to a dad he would ever have.

“Well, you came in here only to be emotional? Or did you find something?”

“We found a rupture between our universes that connect, fortunately, by a line, almost like a worm hole-but without time traveling issues” he explained and for him it was enough, now all they had to do was learn how the stupid rock worked to make a machine –easier to use- for them to return to their respective universes.

“So, about the rock?” Stray stretched in the bed like a kitten, yawning and closing and opening his fist as if they were claws. “Does it have, like a predetermined code, it is made by the march, or is controlled somewhere else?”

“We called some people so they could help us with that” Bruce said, exasperated but trying not to make his resignation show. There were more important things that his “I work alone” issues.

“Great” Tim keeps his hair not too long, not too short, but it was enough for the lose strains to get damp by the sweat in his nape; his neck was wet under the hairline and his chin, and down to his shoulders. The kid was suffocating him, but now the cold air hit him without mercy and it was cooling his sweat to his skin, clearing his nostrils, wanting to take a shower right now was to be expected. He ignored the way Bruce arched his eyebrow at him when he stood up and looked for things inside This Tim’s closet. Some undies and lose dark jeans –the kind of oversized pants that had elephants legs… and this Tim hadn’t grow up his skater style-.

“What time it is?” he asked over his shoulder, Bruce lifted his wrist to his face, narrowing his eyes. His Bruce was some years older than this one, and he already used reading glasses at home.

“Seven and a half.”

“Dinner time!” before he could scold him for being loud, Stray was already inside the bathroom, he heard some muffled sounds before getting inside the shower, letting the water just drip all over him, cleaning away the sweat, the smells, the tiredness. He missed having a good hot shower and he missed even more his hair products, luckily they were the same person where it mattered, and this Tim had a fair amount of lavender conditioner and some keratin shampoo.

He went out the restroom, dressed from waist down, happily singing about shave cream and razors, finally he would get rid of his three days beard, Bruce wasn’t there anymore, and the little robin was nowhere to be seen either. The bedside table, he had seen earlier that day, had some stock of these things, whereas there was none days before, someone with a big heart and very good ears had bought him some so he could be more comfortable. It was Alfred. Alfred was a god.

He kept singing, not caring that much that the bedroom door was open, and there in all his horrible man’s glory, the other batman was standing, glaring at him, arms crossed, sneer in the tip of his tongue. Stray saw from the corner of his eye the way the other man inhaled air –lecturing air- and closed the bathroom door behind him with enough force to make the frame tremble, all the while ignoring him and singing about shave cream.

In the mirror he let himself observe his skin, it was a bit tan, because he stood under the sun too much the previous days, under his nose the skin was tender, probably because he had been crying too much these last days, and under his eyes the bags were fading, hopefully he would see his fiancé very soon, so he has to look his best. He washed away the rest of the shaving cream, cleaned his face once again, put on some toner and lotion and just like that his skin was as soft as a baby’s butt. He smiled, practicing his lovely –forgive me, babe- smile and went out to look for a shirt that wouldn’t hang on his shoulders.

Outside the other Damian was still waiting for him, more annoyed than before and fuming under his breath. Tim smiled at him, fake, so obviously fake that would make him cringe if he saw himself doing it.

“Ah! Horrible man! What a coincidence, you and me in this specific room, in this specific manor, in this specific universe!” he greeted casually, opening the closet’s doors to roam into the shirts, some of them were correctly stored in the drawers, but the rest were thrown in a big pile in one corner. Tim hummed and explored the pile. “Why that face, though?” He threw them over his shoulder, hoping that some of them would hit the horrible man who had started his lecture.

“You took my robin without even consulting me about it, but you expect me to be calm about it?” Stray shrugged.

“Nah, I wanted to annoy you and give the kid a bit of big brother love, you know, as you do” he said nonchalantly, putting on a green day shirt with a faded logo. He looked down to his feet, deciding if it was a good combination or he looked like a hobo. He stuck out his tongue and scoffed, grabbing the corners of the shirt he threw it behind him in an elegant movement, this time it did made contact with Damian’s face. “Besides the kid was so tired, practically sleeping on his feet, if I didn’t abduct him for a few hours, he would have caught something, I did you a favor.”

“He’s my responsibility, I was mere seconds apart from finishing closing out matters with my father downstairs and retrieve him so he could rest under my watch, I did not need for someone like you to step in” he barked, throwing the shirt aside. He saw the back of this hedonistic Tim and growled to himself, how could this man spark so much fire inside of him with only ignoring him?

“You’re welcome” Stray said, head punching out of the turtle neck of a purple shirt, it was a woman’s shirt but if this world’s Tim had it, then it was surely oversized, he put the edges under the pants and observed himself the same as before, growing a grunge for Red robin lack of mirrors. “How do I look?” Damian didn’t answer, he stomped his foot like he was a little child and stormed out of the room. “Great, it leaves you speechless” he shouted at the retrieving back, smiling to himself when he heard the growl escaping from the hall.

“You look acceptable, Stray” the little Damian commented behind his back, Stray smiled all toothy and snappy, pinching his cheeks. A compliment from this world’s little robin is a gift worthy of millions.

“Thank you baby bat, aren’t you on a good mood today?” Damian seemed adamant but didn’t slap his hand away so that was a victory on his book.

“I just finished having a pleasant time by myself outside, and let my brain burn under the sun too long, so don’t mind my poorly coordinated brain to mouth filter.” Damian practically blushed as he was speaking “It wasn’t meant to sound like I was-”the little robin practically shocked on air as he searched for the word to use.

“Baby bat don’t worry about it, it didn’t sound like you were trying to put a move on me or anything. I’m glad you feel happy enough to throw me a compliment, that makes this whole house that much better” Stray hugged his shoulder as he walked down the hall, there was something different between the sweaty warm skin of Dick and the heated dry heat on Damian’s clothes that made Stray wonder why kids were such strange creatures.

“Where are we going?”

“To have fun annoying your Dick Grayson.”

To the normal eye, Damian could appear like a bratty kid with a too-good-for-you kind of attitude in the playground, but to someone that was about to marry the same guy in another universe, Stray could actually see the way his frowned eyebrows betrayed the feeling of concern, he was feeling doubtful about what the older man was proposing, and at the same time there was a sparkle of mischief. Stray knew exactly what to say.

“It’s payback time!” he sang, beaming at the boy who after a second of hesitation accepted with a sharp nod of the head and a shit eating grin.


	5. three empty nests.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some people are looking for their bat, while the cat and the bird are living in each others chambers for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, Red hood Tim and Red robin Jason are...those kind of guys. Jason truly wants to work with Tim, the robin before him, and as he is the robin that knows the world is not in white and black, he really isn't that scandalised by Tim's methods.  
> In this world, Damian has confusing feelings towards tim, and no one really can help him with that.  
> I think Steph and Tim would still have some loose ends and for this, is more probably for Tim to fall in Steph's arms before Damian's.  
> \--  
> OTHER THING.  
> you know how robin Dick is constantly planning something and in this chapter there's almost no trace to the little shit he is, well, that's because there's Bruce, and Dick was still trying to cause a good impression on Bruce before he disappeared, he misses him too much and just wants to be cradle like a baby in his father's arms, so yeah, he's acting like the innocent unknowing little kid for the sake of the mission, Damian knows he's a little shit but is blinded by the happy good lucky boy so he can't get too angry for too long, despite his face.
> 
> and yet again, I'm telling you, Stray's universe just is that good. they learned with their errors, and they usually don't mess in each other business unless is for the kicks or for helping, so there's not ill feelings with none of them... if there ever was any.

Three empty nests.

“Batman disappeared!” exclaimed Jason, the scrawny sixteen year old who somehow was as tall as him, and adult… however he didn’t have time to pity himself over that right now. He smoothed his face, pondered his words and shrugged his arms.

“And?” Jason, the former robin, his former replacement, was pacing in the roof of Gotham. After the whole issue with Damian, who had confronted him to get as far away from Jason as possible, he thought that maybe Jason was trying to recover some sense of belonging in the Wayne house.

Like, he get it, the kid was an orphan on the streets, Bruce was getting soft with time; Damian was the independent son that flew the nest, and Tim was dead, so he needed someone who grounded him, even if the encounter was accident, even if the decision was a whim, even if at first Bruce was just hurting and saw part of him and part of Gotham in the little thief in crime alley, he gets it; Batman needs a robin.

So of course, the little thief, the abused kid who for the first time in a long time was experiencing love and was being taken care of, had nowhere else to go once Bruce disappeared and Damian replaced him. So desperate he was that he was actually talking to Tim, who had tried to kill him, endanger the life of all of his loved ones, -and who had been the fault of the Batman-, and was now actively trying to convince him on letting him search for Bruce, needing his assistance. Tim was about to do it alone, he had affronted Ra’s before, and this time he had everything secured. He has his Intel inside the league, he got Talia by her tail, he was all about using what he learnt while keeping like a guard dog in the demon’s headquarters, and he didn’t need the kid. Damian had made clear he wouldn’t allow the kid near him. He was going to be hunt down if he did. Damian, as Batman, had been trying to trap him for weeks, wanting to send him to Arkham, or to black gate, and until now he had been lucky enough to loss them, he even thought that he had lost Jason too, but the kid found him no matter how many turns he took.

The kid walked to him, almost nose to nose imitating the way Bruce used to make himself look bigger. Tim was not impressed and his face shows it. Jason puffed air through his nose.

“And?! You might want to look all tough and shit, but if you made them disappear then I’m gonna-“

“Shut up, Jay. I have better things to do that playing with Damian anyway, shouldn’t you be studying? What about the whole “I’m gonna be a big bro” bullshit you burned my ears off just a month ago. Go look for them if you want, I’m busy with Bruce.”

He didn’t mean to explode. He usually had a very dry way of getting angry, silently and planning something under all his vicious hate. With Bruce he had gotten angry just a few times, he was the “responsible, independent, sweet little Timmy who didn’t get mad at all” so Bruce never really pictured him angry, and so he always surprised him and Damian when he did. Now, however, after the pit, and after Ra’s, Tim was always angry, always on edge, always wanting to explode some things, start fights when he never wanted to before, yell when he never really raised his voice before, attack when he always defended himself before. Kill, even if he never thought of doing it before. Jay was easily pissed off when someone fought him, and he was a very feral kid before he became robin, so now, as Red robin, he didn’t need to play nice with Tim. He really didn’t want to kill the kid, right now at least, so he controlled his breath and looked at him evenly.

“Have you contacted Oracle?” he asked, Jay nodded, a little bit calmer now. Tim sighed.

“She doesn’t know anything; Batgirl and Orphan are trying to look for him too asking their contacts in other cities, but nothing. You’re the only one I can think of that can find them” Jason was this close to cry. Tim really didn’t want to deal with that. He hated being a teenager before he died, he hates taking care of teenagers now. Sometime in the past he painted Damian as a cold-hearted guy, now he knew it was awkwardness.

“I need more than “Batman disappeared” to start theorizing anything. What about the little robin?” Jay shook his head, desperation in his posture.

“I don’t know. They were patrolling together and then… and then they didn’t come back. I tried to ask the JLA, but no one knows anything. Man hunter couldn’t even reach his mind.”

Tim sighed. Then a spark of opportunity shook his brain.

“Maybe… maybe they are with Bruce” he said softly. Jay was the only one who believed what Tim said, that Bruce was still alive, lost in time.

“You think?” Tim shook his head and Jay almost whimpered. He was so helpless, he was all alone, no Bruce, no Damian, not even little Dick Grayson to shine on his horrible life.

“Not really, but… but it’s a place to start” he stood on the edge of the roof, looking at the Gotham skyline with a bit of determination and just a bit of a jaded air. He was about to jump so he could start looking for any unusual wave in Steph’s sensors when he realized the kid wasn’t following him. “Aren’t you coming, kid?” he asked, all serious, all cold, all what the Red hood was to Gotham, the one that fought corruption and brought back what belonged to the town without never taking anything for himself in return. Jay pressed his lips so he wouldn’t gap at him and nodded, running to the edge, taking impulse before jumping, as he fell and landed with a well-practiced roll of his body, Tim landed heavily in his arms, kicking his legs to impulse his next jump, running through Gotham rooftops in the direction of the clock tower.

* * *

“My god” he whispered, Damian had showed him all the installations of the Batcave, so much more upgraded than his own, and yet…

“Impressive, right?” Tim grinned at the older man, cocking his hips so he could appear more daring than he was feeling.

“Yeah, but I can tell it doesn’t cover all the requirements for Red robin, I mean…” and he signaled all the room “There’s hardly anything that screams “there’s a bat that doesn’t sleep down here at least thrice a week” kind of vibe.” he started inspecting the controls, examining his new work-area.

“We sleep, beloved, we love to spend every available time in bed” Damian said, amused.

Tim nodded kind of remembering when he dated Steph and they both spend days in bed, barely showering or brushing their teeth, cuddling and kissing softly under the blankets, enjoying each other body warm and soft breaths. Then he blushed, because the person he did that with in this universe wasn’t Steph, his girlfriend of years, it was Damian, the very gentle version of him at least, who probably woke up every morning with Tim snoring –stress induced snores- and smelling his stinky skin when he didn’t shower.

“Oh, now I’m embarrassed.”

“Is quite alright, Timothy, you don’t have to be embarrassed, this stays between us and my habibi.” Damian assured “I remember when our activities were translated to anywhere else expect the bed, with time and as you grew older, we retrieve our dates to the couches and beds, it does wonders for your back, although if you didn’t insist in those extreme positions then-” Tim had to interrupt him, he wasn’t understanding, it was true that he sleep almost anywhere that had a place to lie or sit on, but it couldn’t be about that what Damian was saying, so…

“Wait, you mean sex?”

Damian seemed mortified by Tim’s surprise, he didn’t blush, but he looked more flustered than Tim had ever seen a Wayne look.

“Well, yes beloved! Isn’t that why you were embarrassed by what I said?” Tim shook his head like an exaggerated irrigator, red in the ears.

“No, no, no! I thought…I mean, I snore” he exclaimed, his voice growing soft by the end, saying in a small voice what truly embarrassed him “Steph and Kon had always found it funny, and had to wake me up when I start chocking, besides, after I finish a case I talk in my sleep and-” Damian chuckled and Tim pressed his lips in a thin line, the red in his ears now in his cheeks and neck.

“You shouldn’t worry about that” he said touching his shoulder comfortingly, like Dick, and nothing like the other Damian in his world, the Batman one that seemed too keen on having him under his eyes constantly and that touched him with warms hands and hot eyes, how he would step into his space without seconds thoughts. This Damian was, oh, he was feeling jealous, even if not as a lover couldn’t he at least have this Damian as his friend? “Once you find that person, you’ll worry less and less about little things like that, besides you don’t snore that often nor that loud.”

“Well…if you said so” Tim said, trying to shake away the red and the awkward, summoning Red robin in his voice and posture. “Let’s work.”

* * *

“He’s not going to fall for it” Damian assured, crossing his arms and arching his eyebrows, Stray smiled wryly.

“Wanna bet?”

There, in the big bed of one Dick Grayson laid a box of cereal. The man was supposed to be down trying to make Bruce sleep or let go of the child version of him, was he jealous? Well, of course, Bruce hadn’t hugged him that much since he himself was a child! Or at least that was what they heard him fuming when they went down to annoy him.

Tim set a trap, a pretty domestic and obvious-looking one, but the idea was simply to annoy Dick to the point of making him scream. He used to do that a lot when momma was training him, and after the worship and the wonder of seeing his hero died a little, it had become Tim’s favorite part of his training. The sneaky time, the dorky plans, the waiting that burned the anticipation in his stomach making impossible to stay completely still. The first few times Tim was found out, or his traps miscalculated the time-reaction of the Nightwing, but after a while he got exceptionally good at it. Now, he was introducing Damian to the art of “innocent” mischief.

“It’s a common bird-trap! He’s smarter than that” the boy defended his brother, but Tim only stuck out his tongue.

Before anyone of them could say anything more, they heard the heavy steps of a fuming Dick Grayson. The man, well entered to adulthood by now, was sulking openly and loudly how Bruce was being an unfair father, showing favoritism and shit. And in the middle of it he throw a sad “Damian isn’t here with me either!” that made the young boy look mortified and slightly annoyed by the older man in the room childish tantrum.

Tim nudged his shoulder just as Dick fell silent suddenly at the view of a cereal-box on his bed, smiling uncontrollably by the pleasant burn of anticipation, ah, what a bite of nostalgia.

Dick seemed suspicious of it, but to the horror of Damian, his big brother didn’t even bothered to search his surroundings, nor did he even glance to the ceiling where a big blanket was supported barely by some pins that would give in the moment Stray tugged of an invisible thread. Something that for an assassin was worth of being behaved and that could have cost him his life out in the field work. Dick smiled to himself, sat on the bed, grabbed the box to open it, and in a blink, Stray had already dropped the blanket and was jumping above his older brother, grabbing the corners of the wide blanket and making sure the man couldn’t escape, tying him like a burrito. Laughing, Stray flashed a happy look to Damian who after just seconds, jumped in the bed too.

“What the! I’m being attacked!” Dick screamed his whole body tense and sharp like a surprised snake. After he heard Stray laughing, however, he started to wriggle and roll on the bed, trying to pin the other adult to the bed.

“C’mon dude, it’s not funny! My tummy hurts” he warned “in fact, I ate beans yesterday.”

“Gross, Richard, keep that information to yourself” Damian chastised, but Stray laughed louder and let Dick roll to his back so he could sit on his chest, Damian at his side trying to contain a smile.

“Dami?” the man was so confused that he looked like a lion cub playing with the grass, cute but so weird. Stray grinned and lowered his upper body to give him a kiss in the cheek.

“I should so take a pic for Steph!” exclaimed after he saw the frown on Dick’s confused face. Damian shook his head and sighed exasperated, but right now he didn’t know if he was disappointed by his brother lack of judgment, or by this other Tim acting so frugal around everyone when the one from this universe barely fell asleep in the same room as them.

“Is this guy corrupting you, Dami?” Dick asked betrayal in his face. Damian took a second to analyze how he felt. He was exited, he was giddy, and he jumped on the bed like a puppy trying to play with an exasperated owner. He never did that just because. This was so…childish.

“I think he is” he exclaimed, surprised, earning an arm around his shoulders and a wide grin. Dick tried to kick his legs out of the burrito.

“Not fair! I was supposed to do that!”

“Sneeze you lose!”

“You’re such a twisted Drake, Timmy would never!” Dick cried, going limp, almost like a worm. Damian rested his head by his side, nodding in affirmation. Tim jumped over his chest, hard enough to make Dick wince by the air-loss, and then rested his elbow on the elder’s collarbone, to rest his chin in his hand in all the fashion of Catwoman leering plays, just that with much less leer.

“Oh you know he’s still young” he purred, making Dick sulk more and Damian groan.

* * *

“Robin” he called, expecting the kid to act surprised, like he was caught doing something not allowed.

His father disappeared just months into having taking in this circus kid. A true tragedy, they were devastated but he never thought his father would let his emotions control him like that. In the past he had tried adopting Tim, first, when he went to college and was set on never ever again talking to Batman or stay in his shadow. The heir son abandoned the house and went to build his own name, being fair, Damian wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to be the heir of his father’s legacy, it was just something mother told him he wanted and… well, back then he didn’t know any better. His father, the cold, possessive man that wanted to control every second of his life had never been ready to be a father and yet…

Tim Drake was the neighbor. He had known since nine who Batman and robin were –since being the weird neighbor kid has its advantages it seems-, and one day he was tracking them down on Gotham’s rooftops to take pictures of them, at twelve more or less, when he met Stephanie Brown. Former Spoiler, current Oracle. She “trained” him, to be fair, both of them were just having vigilante dates were only Spoiler was the vigilante and were happy in that kind of dynamic for a while without Tim revealing who he was to the other bats until tragedy hits his already broken home. His mother died and he went to Batman for help, only that he went at daylight, to the manor, when Damian was in his last year of high school and had renounced to the mantle of robin, and one thing lead to other and Tim Drake became robin. Damian hated that.

He’s ashamed to say, he was such an asshole.

But even though Tim was robin, he wasn’t the son of Batman. So, eventually Damian accepted him, respected him, gave him the mantle and treated him like his alley, but they never grew closer than that.

And then Tim’s father was murdered. Bruce wanted to adopt him. He went mad.

He didn’t talk with him, he didn’t care for him, he only ever shared some words in a mission and then… then Tim was gone. The tension between him and his father grew, and only after Jason was adopted, Damian came back to the manor (after a talk with Jon, who had recently learned that his father had a clone that was around his age), to be a big brother, to begin again. This time, Damian arrived in time, this time; Damian was part of the new robin’s life. This time it was Damian who encouraged Jason to become robin instead of Bruce just taking the mantle from him.

And then Tim came back.

And then Bruce was gone, and left him with a kid. And for the first time he realized, just how unready his father was at first when he stepped into his life, because he wasn’t ready for this. But he was trying his damn best, to be the supporter of his entire family, to make sure everyone was safe. Yeah, he wanted to send Tim to Arkham or at the very least having him in the manor. He-Tim- had tried to kill Jay, for the love of god. He tried to kill him and Bruce several times, and once Bruce was gone, he somehow went even crazier than he already was.

He was pissing of important criminals.

He was contacting the league.

He was dragging Jason into his messes.

He was saying Bruce was alive.

And even though Damian knew it was a lost cause, he couldn’t help but try to help Tim. Try to save him, keep him close, close, close.

Richard smiled at him, from his father’s lap petting a cat in the couch, enjoying the attention. It pained him, because Richard seemed so happy when Bruce said he would adopt him, and then him gone destroyed for a second time the young kid who still got strength on his body and soul to keep smiling.

He scowled, because really, what was he supposed to do? In the gentlest voice he could summon, he started scolding the little robin, sitting in front of his father.

“What have I told you about not letting my side on missions?” he asked; Dick whined and covered his eyes.

“We are in the manor, Dami” he tried; Bruce nodded because of course the hypocrite.

“Then what about not going to places all by yourself with a villain?” at this Bruce nodded again, giving reason to Damian. Dick simply shrugged his shoulders.

“Bruce goes all the time with Catwoman, isn’t that the same?”

How old was this kid again? Damian had to make sure no inappropriate themes escaped his mouth.

“That’s different! Father is an adult” he said, the easiest option. Dick looked at Bruce then. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t his Bruce; it was all the same in this matter.

“What do the adults do when they go all by themselves with a villain?” Bruce coughed inside his hand and Damian had to keep back a laugh. Ah, then the pain hit him and he mourned his late father as per usual lately.

Bruce blushed slightly and hid it with the back of his arm.

“We…fight” he said, plainly but painfully embarrassed in the inside. Damian shook his head. Yeah, sure.

“But! You love Catwoman! How can you fight!?” Dick almost screamed. He had forgotten how loud his older son used to be –not that he isn’t loud now, but before it was… well, louder-. He knew his mother and father and the people in the circus were loud, because well, they always had something to do, always have to shout something to someone in midair and try to speak above all the other noises from visitors or animals. He tried to summon all his knowledge of Dick to answer him.

We’re talking about the kid that screamed “is her or me!” when he had his little fling with Talia so he had to be careful, to not confuse him anymore and to not making him jealous.

“Well, sometimes the people we love… aren’t exactly always good people” he tried, really. He loved Selina with his every bone as much as Gotham, but there was not sugarcoating that she was, in simple words, a thief.

“Oh” said little Dick Grayson, looking sadly at Damian who had been too inside of his head for the last minute or so. “Like Tim?”

“Your world’s Red hood?” Bruce asked, more like answering himself as he also was nodding. Dick flashed a pained grin.

“He’s weird. Too…quiet, makes me want to make him…I don’t know.”

Well, that was because Tim grew in a silent house, with silent parents and caretakers. Tim didn’t use to say much, in his own behalf, unless he was delivering a message from parent to parent whenever they were fighting. But otherwise, he was a dorky kid with few friends that only started speak his mind when he confronted Bruce. Maybe he had it in him all the time, but lately… lately Tim was extra quiet around them, once again inside the silent house.

“He’s…loud sometimes, but only when he’s arguing with Damian, when he’s crying.” he added, and Bruce couldn’t stop feeling bad, stressed, searching for solutions. He couldn’t protect this family though, so he had to stop his mind before it convinced him of following this Damian through the universes.

“-And then the idiot jumped backwards but miscalculated the distance of the wall and slammed his face against the bricks! Steph laughed at him so loud that they ruined their cover and I had to jump in to distract the guards” a cheerful voice said, growing closer down the hall as another voice whined.

“How can it be that you saved us?” adult Richard asked, someone grumbled.

“It wasn’t for you; it was for Steph, because we are, after all, the closest of friends since forever!”

“Did you also date your Steph?” asked the older, someone growled.

“Yeah, for a while” Strays answered “But now I’m happily in love with my Dami” someone growled louder.

“Ooh! Do tell boy” a girl’s voice screamed in the middle of the hall, making the growling creature sigh tiredly.

“He’s tall! He’s tan! He has a big, hot…heart!”

“You’re such a ridiculous person” now the growling creature had a name, Bruce smirked at the adult Damian as the younger one stepped inside the room, but seemingly Stray hadn’t notice him yet.

“We want dirty details!” encouraged Steph, blocking Tim’s view of the room without noticing as she was giving her back to the room. Tim sighed exaggeratedly loud as adult Dick Grayson tried to cover Damian’s ears and failing as Damian slapped his hands away.

“I’d like to do so, my dear Steph, but there’s a kid present.”

Damian huffed “I’m fourteen” he retorted, Tim smirked.

“I know all your weak spots, Dami, you don’t want me to tell, do you?” at this Damian covered adult Dick’s ears, yanking the head of the poor man down to do so, bending his body uncomfortably.

“No! Don’t!”

“He’s very ticklish…” and Steph was laughing “ah! I don’t know, I like to keep it my dirty little secrets after all.”

At this, tiny Richard climbed Stray and, even though the initial surprise because Stray didn’t know he was there the man made sure the kid was secure enough in his arms before balancing his weight to be more comfortable himself, the kid whispered in his ear very loudly “Can you tell me the secret?” Stray laughed and wiggled his eyebrows, whispering loudly enough in return “Around his waist” Dick put both hands on his mouth to shuffle a laugh as the adult one started tickling the young Damian, earning a desperate laugh. Bruce shook his head, and the adult Damian covered his face. Great.

“I hate you so much!” screamed between laughs Damian, trying to kick Dick in the face and flipping Steph and Tim at the same time.

“Well, well, little robin, where’s your bat?”

“Right here” answered Damian, Tim curled his lips in distaste and lowered Dick to the ground, scoffing at the other man, the laugh died and so Steph questioned curiously “What happened between you two? Why such a bad blood?”

And if that were a button, Tim switched his reaction completely. “Oh, nothing, nothing, this man is just horrible, but what can a boy do about other people’s problems to socialize correctly?”

“I have some suggestions” Damian answered after he could grab his robin and lift him so he was resting the boy’s weight on his hip. Tim rolled his eyes and hugged the little Damian, resting his chin on his head.

“Never grow up to be like that Dami, you should have better mannerisms than that.”

“Don’t go out with men like him, Richard, or you’ll be eaten” the boy practically shouted a look a Tim, oh how naïve that kid was, just seconds before he was clinging to Tim.

“Dami, try not to be such an insufferable adult, we don’t need a second Bruce around” Stray smiled when he saw the twitching on the other man’s shoulders.

“Stray, you’re such a childish man” Dami chastised him and Tim shrugged his shoulders in return.

“You’re right, let’s go, we still have to feed batcow.”

“yo! Dude! Are you alright?” the older Dick asked Damian as he let go of his robin as Bruce called over Ace so they could play.

“I’m fine, Grayson, just a little bit on edge” Dick nodded and after a second of evaluating his options he sat down.

“So, how’s Gotham doing?”

Damian smirked, elbows on his knees and hands hanging relaxed in the air as his neck relaxed a bit. The other adult hugged him by the shoulder and like that he shared a bit. Just a bit.

* * *

“So, when was the last time you saw mister annoying?” he asked, Jay crossed his arms, yeah, it was true that Damian was a true pain in the ass sometimes, but he wasn’t bad. Not the way Tim thought he was anyway.

“Like, five days ago I think” he said, trying to look over Tim’s shoulder to whatever thingy he was analyzing. Damian wasn’t such a meticulous detective, he was good, of course he was, he was as good as Batman! But Tim was the one that could take one good look at a room and identified whatever was off place in less than a few minutes. It was…such an open-eye experience to see Tim working.

Steph had guided them where the signal from Batman and robin tracks was lost. A dark, little alley.

“Have he been trying to put Catwoman on jail or what?” Jay shook his head, that day he had been following Tim. He knew, but Tim wasn’t supposed to know. Only now he knew that Tim wasn’t in Gotham around that time, he was in Paris and only returned the day before Jason went to look out for him.

Now Tim have this look on his face, the one that was suspicious of Jason and that couldn’t be good. Last time Tim looked at him like that, he tried to jam his head against a wall.

“I swear to you. They were supposed to just patrol. They had been following a lead to you, but no one knew you were on Paris escaping the last mad guy you annoyed.” at this, Tim scoffed.

“You aren’t supposed to know where I am. That’s the point of me hacking everything, you dumbass.” Then Tim nodded to Jason for him to come closer.

“See” he started, giving him what looked like a long acrylic nail. But it was made of metal, and was extremely pointy. Then he signaled to the wall “See here. There’s a burn. Like there was some extreme exposure to light specifically here and a body right in the middle took part of that exposure, making the wall’s saturation uneven…” Jason couldn’t have notice this all by himself even during the day. Tim seemed too used to observe the walls, while Jason was too busy looking for footsteps to follow.

“And what about the nail?” he asked. Tim smirked, the absolute bastard.

“That’s a very good question. Whatever took them, or was taken with them, works in a very similar way to Catwoman’s method.”

Jason gasped. And then schooled his face. He was the dark.

“I see.”

“Have you ever gone to Catwoman before?”

“Not alone…not for long at least.” Tim nodded.

“Then I’ll go with you. We found ourselves a lead” he pressed the comm, and the happy singing voice of Steph answered with half a sneer.

“huh!”

“Don’t be mad, baby, we got a lead.”

“You better, Tim. Damian’s gonna have my neck for helping you” she said, not real poison on her voice, Jason keep closer to Tim, seemingly at ease with the other teenager.

“Since when the guy’s your boss?” Tim joked.

“Good point. See you later boy in red.”

At this the comm went off and Tim grabbed Jason arm. “Let’s go” he made Jason put his hands around his waist, one hand firm on his back, and shot the grapple. It felt like a hug.

* * *

“So it’s connected by a line, lucky us, so we don’t face the danger of getting lost on, yet, another universe. Actually is more like a triangle. You see. Our universe is on one point of the triangle, and yours is in another and the other Damian’s too. But the travels are like this, is a 1-2-3 kind of situation, where you can’t jump from 1 to 3, or from 2 to 1, you have to go to 1, then 2, and last 3, and start the cycle again. So how can we make sure we have all the energy possible to jump so many travels and let everyone in their own universes? That’s the hard part. And we aren’t even considering that my universe is maybe doing their own research, if they got to the same answer, then maybe they are already doing a machine for the journeys.”

Damian nodded, one hand on his chin, pointed at the screen to the improvised map that Tim draw to illustrate the line-triangle-1-2-3 theory and added in a thoughtful way “So that’s why your initial intention is to connect the universe as one would do with the infinite complex. You see it like a network and not the complicated bubble of life, organism and dust that are actually there?” it didn’t sound like a scold, more like he was impressed “Are you trying to say that you want to play paper-cup phone between universes?”

“Yeah!”

“I’m in.”

Tim couldn’t help but beam; he smiled brightly and kept explaining how he wanted to create this phone. Working with this Damian was like working with Bart when he was concentrated for once, only that…well, with Damian.

They stayed there for almost three hours before Bruce came down with Selina to shush them to the dinning.

“I’m sure we can finish it in a few minutes, Bruce” he said, waving a hand at them, but that only could work on his world, because the moment he gave them his back to go back to his screen, Selina grabbed him by his ear and shoved him harder than gently and gentler than hardly to the stairs. Tim actually felt more the tugging of the movement more than the burn of his ear and blushed red when he saw himself being treated like a spoiled kid.

Oh! He was the spoiled kid!

“No kid of mine –doesn’t matter you’re not from here- would go hours without rest or real food after they broke into a fever. You’re going upstairs, you’re cleaning your hands, you’re eating your dinner, and you’re going to sleep. Understood?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Bruce and Damian laughed at him. At him! Those brats! Bruce-I don’t sleep unless drugged without my consent- Wayne and Damian-I’ll scream until you let me have it- Wayne. Oh, how embarrassing.

“Oh, baby, you’re going to get used to it” Selina assured him and at this Tim hid his face willingly on her chest, like a little kid. “Yes, ma’am.”

* * *

Damian was having troubles accepting the fact that Tim was a cat-person. When faced upon having Stray purring and playing with Alfred the cat, Alfred the butler twitched his nose.

“He used to beg insistently on having a cat around your age. Giving him the chance, he would probably end up like this young master here.” he sighed, he knew pennyworth didn’t like to clean the cat’s hair from the couches or the clothes, but he got a soft spot for his master’s pets, so he was surprised to discover that he had said no to the face of a kid with a cat. “As you might know, master Timothy is…obsessive. He would have adopted kitty after kitty without knowing when to stop, I’m afraid.”

“tt. He’s had better self-control than that, it would be shameful otherwise.”

At this, Steph, who had been on her phone silently watching everyone, jumped to ask Tim how many cats he had on his universe. Stray paused, looked at Alfred the cat, and shrugged.

“There’re momma’s cats, the cats on my safe houses, the ones that come by to play, the ones that I had brought with me to the manor. Strictly speaking, only ten of them have collars, and the rest only have names, but well, if you don’t love a cat, then you don’t love your life” he said flippantly. And when Alfred gave him a “look” he shrugged a bit. “I mean… how can I say no to their faces? I swear the only ones I adopted officially are those on need to be cared for!”

“Very well.”

“Taken care of?” asked Steph siting by his side, the cat jumped to his shoulder and sat there, looking curiously at Damian who was dumbstruck by Tim’s answer. Well.

“You know, those white cats that usually have lots of problems, that people somehow adopt because they’re cute, but then it results that they have lots of physical and health problems and they throw them away. I took in deaf cats and blind ones too. Sometimes I rescue those ones that have lost a leg, but I mostly live with deaf cats.”

“You’re such a sweet guy” Steph sighed, petting Alfred the cat. Tim shook his head.

“Nah, momma does it too, and Damian always loved animals, and I grabbed the habit just a while after I became nineteen” he made a thoughtful face at this “I used to have a cat before though, but he was already old when I took him in and didn’t live with me that long…Damian was the one that found a little deaf white cat and brought it with him some time after my cat died, and asked me if I could look it for him.”

“So sad, timmy” she hugged him and Tim laughed.

“Hey, it’s fine!” he said returning the hug.

“Stray” Damian’s voice was soft, he didn’t know that Tim was such a cat person; he didn’t know that under all that serious facade there was a dorky kid with a too flirtatious nature, such a gentle companion. But maybe this family hadn’t screwed him up that much. The man looked at him, smile on his face.

“Yes, Dami?”

“Did you go to college?” he asked, in the couch, Stephanie freeze, she looked at Damian’s eyes with pain and guilt. Those months were such horrible time for her, that day, when they thought Tim was dead, when they realized Tim had plans, that Tim had a life were the unspoken times. Richard had been through much, Jason had been through much too, Damian, Steph, Cass, Bruce, Barbara, everyone went through dark times on their lives, but where everyone else just returned to their lives and plans as if nothing, Tim never went back. He never finished his plans before the imprisonment, nor he tried to return to a normal civil life, he secluded himself, he destroyed his relationships, he dedicated himself to the mission, and where there was supposed to be a teen sneaking out for parties, there was a sad young man sitting alone by the windowsill for far too long every day. But this Tim, this one never was-

“Yeah, I like science, you see, but also I didn’t want to raise too much attention, so I became a vet instead, so I hadn’t had to go out so many times for my cat’s appointments. You wanna know what you studied, Dami?” Damian shook his head.

“What about me?” asked Steph, all her pain hiding deep inside her as she beamed, he laughed.

“You’re a very intelligent lawyer, a damn cute one too!” they hi-fived and just like that the conversation passed away and Damian rested his head against the couch side while Steph and Tim watched gossip videos on YouTube.

He was having troubles reconciling this Tim with the one that hated him. Things could have been different.


	6. Summersaults and Timmys.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of foreplay before shit goes down.  
> Tim wants to help his Damian to search for a love that would help him grow, or at least a relationship of friendship or love to understand better how to be surrounded by people, even if is just one person. But still he can't help but be loved by older men, even if they are Damian too.  
> Stray's lucks is back, he thinks so.  
> Jason's robin days after Tim, and Jason's red robin days with Tim, truly this kid wants to be like his old bro.  
> And the other Damian is just so...so helpless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guys I wrote this chapter like three times, like for fuck's sake I swear it just got erased again and again until i went like, i'm going to give up, and the shit hit me like, Finish something in your life at least once you fucker. and here we are.

Summersaults and Timmys.

They were down in the cave wrestling and exercising when the alarms in the computer started to blast all around the place.

Bruce, Dick and the other universe robin were passing through an old routine, new for the little robin but from a lifetime ago for him and his son, when the computer’s screen started to download some foreign archive. 

Bruce jumped in alert to start the shutdown of the cave and the computer, but it seemed like the person on the other side knew he would try that, and made sure Bruce couldn’t shut it down. Prior more observation, Bruce realized the computer have been accessed by another computer nor registered in the datas, but the password and method to ingress in it was very familiar. As they waited for the bar to stop downloading whatever program it was, Dick and robin kept very quiet behind him, as if they were expecting orders from Bruce for their next move.

“Hello?” Tim’s voice made all his muscles relax, almost melt in the chair, and if he was a weaker man he would have sighed happily to the relief that flooded in his chest. Instead he raised the volume of the computer and gave a deeper look to the coordinates of the messenger.

“Timmy, oh thanks god!” screamed his son who jumped to Bruce’s arm chair in a fluid movement, robin on the other side tried to climb him but opted to sat on one of his legs, facing away from the computer and observing the reactions of the others.

They started asking Tim how he was, where he was, and how he made communications from universe to universe possible. Tim answered with easy and précised words in order to have them quiet down. Then, so he could be alone with Bruce, he ordered the Graysons to go look for Stray, and once the boys disappeared, -Bruce informed Tim of it-, his son started the true explanation. 

Tim explained him his theory, how he connected the calls but couldn’t connect he visuals, and how they should travel so they could be certain of everyone being where they were supposed to be.

“You see, I’m in universe A, the first one where someone found the rock; the other Damian and Dick are from universe B, and our universe is C. We can’t go from C to B or from A to C, as my theory points out, so from universe C, you guys have to come to universe A, we left Stray here and we go to universe B, we leave their Batman and robin there and I’m free to go back home. So, how are the blue prints for the machine going?”

Bruce nodded along, knowing perfectly fine that Tim couldn’t see him but knew he was doing so, and explained to him that both, he and the other Batman had started the main layout for the machine, planning what kind of fuel they should use, and how they got stuck on the technical details but were slowly figuring out. Now, thanks to Tim, they could finish the whole deal faster than they originally thought.

Tim was laughing at Bruce commenting how work from WE was collecting dust on his office when the rest of the house pocked their heads on the top of the stairs. Bruce waved a hand to Stray, and for the rest. Once the other Batman was near enough, he let the rest with Tim and guided him so they could discuss the mechanics of the matter alongside Dick. His robin, the other robin, Stray and Steph were steps away from the computer, expecting something.

“Guys?”

And just like that Steph squeaked and Damian bolted to the chair.

“Red robin, report!” ordered the small one while the girl simply let herself plop on the chair, squeezing the boy to the armchair.

“Tim jack Drake-Wayne! How could you?” she exclaimed, despite her tone, her face was the tale of mischief, of course Tim didn’t know this.

“Steph? Oh boy, if is because I get lost all the time, I’m sorry.” He apologized, voice nervous “but if it is because the Gotham gazette published something with my name in it, is probably a lie and you shouldn’t read those things” he finished, someone on the other side laughed as Tim squeaked an “I swear.”

“I don’t know if I can forgive you Tim, they found your only-fans account.” Mocked Steph, Tim screamed a high pitched “what!” and Steph laughed, nudging Damian so he knew that what was happening was supposed to be funny.

After some minutes, Tim explained Damian and Steph all about the universe where he dropped in, and upon saying it was Stray’s universe, he asked about the other man. Steph looked behind her shoulder to the frozen cat boy and smiled him comfortingly.

“Stray! Is that you?” Tim asked after a soft shuffled audible enough for them could be heard over the speakers.

“Timmy” he saluted, trying to relax. But how to?

Damian. His Damian was right there, on the other side. Oh, was he mad? Was he disappointed? Was he happy to know he was fine, or was he indifferent to the one he called the love of his life?

“Oh good, you’re there. Here’s someone that wants to talk to you” he was almost paralyzed by it, Steph patted his shoulder and Damian tt-ied, yet, he was as nervous as a kid going to the circus for the first time.

“Timothy” that voice. That one that melted him and grounded him and made his chest go crazy with happiness, that voice that he wanted to hear every morning and every night, that he loved even when it was angry or sad, because all that voice was coming from his fiancé, from his lover. His Dami. His lips trembled and he tried to say something but couldn’t.

“Timothy? Are you there?” little tears pooled on the corners of his eyes, yet he blinked them away so he could try again. Oh, damn, he felt like the mermaid who sold her voice for love. He sighed, air trembling and warm, and got closer to the desk so even if his voice was small they could hear him.

“Damian” a heartbeat passed before the other man talked again, emotion clear in his voice “my love” if he giggled, he could be excused by it. He was just so damn happy. “I’m here.”

They kept talking for some time, Stray every now and them whipping away the tears that wanted to escape his eyes, and the man on the other side murmuring reassurances, promising that everything would be fine.

Steph scrapped Damian’s hair while the others talked, managing to make the teenager rest on her side, a bit tired, a bit bored. And just watched this Tim smile and laugh and talk with that sparkle on his eyes.

* * *

Damian let himself get distracted. He saw how Stray reacted to his voice, even if it wasn’t exactly his. And let his mind wander to his universe, to his Tim.

Every smile was followed with the hot burned image on his memories of a frown. Every laugh followed by screams and silent cries. This other Damian, one that seemed happier than he would ever be, seemed to only bring smiles to his Tim, while, searching his memories, it seemed he only made the young man cry.

“I love you.”

“I hate you.”

“And I, you.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

He remembered the last time they fought, the way Tim eyes were red, yet he wasn’t crying, the way his body let the vicious anger flown out of him. He used to be just a boy, just the weird nerd neighbor kid. He was the kind of guy you couldn’t tell was rich because, well, he never showed it. The few times he saw the boy waiting the school bus in the bus stop instead of doing like Damian at his age and let Alfred drive him to the academy was the why Damian knew about him, but that was all he knew about the Drakes. Till he came knocking at their door.

Later he was told Tim was Steph’s boyfriend, and the kid she passed time with when patrol was uneventful. They stayed together, even though they never were really official until a time after Tim became robin, till Tim died, he even stayed with Steph despite the girl being pregnant with someone’s else, but of course, stuff got complicated when he came back, and in the back of his head Damian felt relieved, even with all the guilt, he was happy Tim was alone now, only Damian there for him to turn into if he needed help. It was egoistical and surely a fantasy because he didn’t have all the facts, and yet…

“I miss you so bad, I want to see you.”

_“You wish I was still dead, don’t you?”_

* * *

They spent some hours discussing matters with the others as Damian got ready for patrol and Selina helped Helena to strength before it. In this universe all the family lived together, even the sons and daughters in law, and was this why Tim didn’t really had any spare room for him to occupy lest than Damian and Stray’s room, but as Damian went out, Selina informed him that she would bring Bruce over to her penthouse, so Tim could sleep in Damian’s room and Damian could sleep on their room. Tim thanked her, and Selina pinched his cheeks before doing the exact same thing to Helena, following with a big wet kiss on her cheek to wish her a safe night.

Tim was left alone in the cave with a little too much free time. He couldn’t go patrol here, and he hadn’t finished his machine, so while he rested his eyes, he tried to get in contact with the other Batman’s universe.

Nothing.

He knew that Red hood wouldn’t answer him. There wasn’t a robin nest, much less a theatre safe house for him to contact, the other Tim knew how to erase and cover his steps and how and who he communicated with. But there must be Alfred, or Jason. And yet, nothing.

If their Oracle was as good as his, then it would be a futile mission trying to contact her.

He was falling asleep when Alfred came down to the cave and offered him Tai tea, the aroma relaxing him further. The butler offered him accompany him upstairs and Tim let himself being guided there.

He flopped into the mattress, happily sighing in contentment. Alfred said his goodbyes and the lights were off, but the lamp was on. Tim buried his face in the side that was sure to be Damian’s, and inhaled deeply into it. Oh, why he couldn’t be his?

Then he chastised himself for thinking like that and decided that there were too many confusing feelings to stay awake and rolled to Stray’s side to curl and sleep in his own, slightly stronger and more mature, aroma.

* * *

“I can’t believe Bruce is alive” Jay said, trembling a bit by the emotion. Tim raised an eyebrow at him, incredulity clear on his otherwise emotionless face. Jay shrugged his shoulders and tried to look sheepish. “Not that I never believe you, Tim, it just too good to be true, you know what I mean” Tim didn’t nod but Jason felt it in the way he blinked at him.

The night before Tim had introduced him to the team that the league had given him to search for Bruce, well, the one that was left that is, and together they showed Jason the evidence, finally having all the pieces together to go search for Bruce in the time realm. Jason was awestruck, of course, yet Tim wasn’t as happy as one might think.

“We haven’t found robin and Damian yet.” He said voice deep yet, for some reason, soft. Jason hadn’t thought of that, he was just too happy to have Bruce back.

“We’ll going to find them, Tim, when have you been wrong?”

Jason said it out of a wimp, out of admiration and holding dear the robin he saw so many times on the city, someone that would appear doing very ridiculous things that only after the day was finished, made sense. He was a legend, as much as the first one. The one that was truly an urban legend.

Tim knew this, he could read Jason that good, and Jason made it easy too. The kid was open, with his body language and his facial expressions. Of course he already had a voice deeper than him, and was going to be taller than him once he hit another grow spurt, and he had made jokes already of how he could become the Batman the city truly needed, and because he liked Tim and wanted to work with him, he offered the robin position to Tim, of course it was all jokes, but under all it Tim could see how much the kid was growing soft with him. Bruce would be happy that this kid hadn’t been corrupted, that he hadn’t end like Tim.

And yet, he felt guilty this kid trusted him this much.

“I was wrong, Jason. I was wrong from the beginning, and you know it. Keep looking for Damian, kid. He is somewhere, maybe another universe or something, but I’m sure he won’t be happy if he knows I’m helping you. I’m going for Bruce. I’m bringing him back” Jason made an attempt to step closer to him and Tim almost smacked him. He shoots him a hard look, wary and vicious, almost pit green.

“We can go together, Bruce can help us. You don’t need to-“ but Tim shut him up raising his voice enough to rasp his vocal cords.

“I’m going, alone! You stay here. Jason, don’t follow me. Don’t pretend like we can be family, never. It won’t happen.”

He jumped the roof, free falling for some seconds before grabbing a flag tube, using his momentum to kick the wall and jump to the other edifice, landing on the fire scape and running down without stopping. Jason left alone in the top of the roof.

“Great job, Tim” the sarcastic voice of Steph was meant to make him feel bad about how he let Jason alone when the kid had nobody to turn for help, but instead it made him think of her sad face when they met again after he returned to Gotham. Tim scoffed.

“Get off my back, S.”

“You let the kid alone.” She chastised him, voice in a low hiss. Tim laughed humorlessly.

“In my times, we were always left alone.”

There was silence for a while and Tim thought he had won. He was about to shut down the comms of the bats so he could talk with Prudence alone, but the voice of his favorite memory talked again before he could do so.

“You are the one that pushed us away” sour saliva pooled in his mouth, and he didn’t know if it was bile or blood. “You’re not alone.”

But he was, wasn’t he?

* * *

It was eight in the morning when Tim connected another call to his universe. Stray was already up, updating him about the machine and how Damian and Bruce were presuming their abs and muscles all around the cave while welding. Tim laughed, trying to imagine his Bruce being competitive like that.

Around eight fifteen, Damian stumbled into the cave, cup of chai tea in hand and swollen eyes, yet there was a strange sense of familiarity in it. His mind wandered to Damian in his bath rub too big for him, dragging his feet in the halls when it was too early, usually Tim was going to bed when they bumped in the halls, but all the way it wasn’t an unusual thing in the manor.

He left Damian to sleepily talk to Stray while he strengthen and studied the coordinates for the other Batman’s computer, still nobody answered his calls, but the math wasn’t wrong either. Tim was a bit worried.

Around nine and a half, Damian bid his goodbyes, blowing a single kiss to the screen in keen answer to the multiple kisses Stray was throwing on the other side. He knew it was other of the exaggerated things Stray did only to look annoying to the others, but Damian seemed used to it by now. He knew Stray hated the other Damian and had almost adopted his universe Damian in a very Bruce Wayne’s fashion and seemed fairly happy with it. Steph screamed on the other side calling the other Tim and Bruce took the seat beside the mic.

Tim talked a bit with his Bruce and then he disconnected the call, trying again five minutes after with the other universe.

“Hello?”

He let five minutes go by without answering before he tried again, voice soft yet authoritative, waiting for someone that knew how to do a report.

“Hello?” he asked again, he sighed. Well, it would be like the others time and no one would be in the cave to answer him. Then-

“Hello?”

It was a teenager voice, raspy and way too deep for a sixteen or seventeen year old, but maybe it was Tim’s jealousy talking. He knew that voice had heard before, at galas, and at the streets years before he even became robin. It was the raspy deep voice of Jason.

“Jason Todd?” he asked, just to be sure. The voice in the other side shocked on air.

“Who the fuck are ye?”

Oh, right. Jason had never been…the kind to sugarcoat their attitude. That was what made him such and incredible robin anyway, Dick was cute, sweet and the angel-faced son of a demon, while Jason was all rough edges and kid-control –or lack of it- (but sweet when in family territory) of course some of the things Bruce taught them stuck even back when they were just kids, for example, the way they rasped their voices to seem more intimidating and never let any emotion you don’t want to be noticed out in your tone. It was nostalgic.

“I’m Tim Drake, from another universe” he answered, wanting to finish the presentations the sooner possible.

“Yeah, right” the boy answered annoyance clear in his voice. He wanted to laugh at Jason’s face once he was back at his universe, the slightly squeaky sound of his pubescent voice as his soundtrack. “How do I know yer not an alien enemy or a shapeshifter or something?”

“Yeah, you don’t know, that’s why you also don’t know if I’m not Tim Drake from another universe” he said all smug and smirk, by his side Damian was resting his back in the other chair, musing over the conversation, they heard Jason sighing and then the boy telling them he was going to shut down the computer. Before he could Tim jumped forward “I know where your Batman is, if you help me, he’s going to be back a lot faster than if you don’t.”

A beat of silence before the other Jason scoffed “alright, what can I lose anyway?” he said. Tim almost pated himself in the back and Damian proceeded to talk with Jason.

“Batman?” Jason sounded so hopefully, it was such a hard thing telling him that this Damian wasn’t his, and that they were all separated in universe A, B, and C. But the kid understood them just well and was writing a report alongside the explanation both, Tim and Damian, provided him with. When Tim was about to tell him about the machine and how he should do the blueprint, he asked about Jason’s Tim.

“He’s good with machines, right? Almost as good as Bruce? You should call him so he can help you with it.” Jason stayed silent for an entire minute, Tim was about to examine the coordinates to see if they had shifted when the boy talked again.

“yeah, no can’t do. He’s not here; I don’t know where he is, either.”

“Oracle?”

“She doesn’t know either. It does not matter, just give me the instructions, I’ll manage. I’ll ask Oracle for help or Roy, he’s a freak for machines as much as you.”

“Yeah, you can do that, Jason.” He didn’t mention the other Tim again, he let Jason ask question after question and was mostly finished by lunch time, he ordered Jason to be alert to the computer around four in the evening and he disconnected the call.

Alfred had already prepared lunch for them when they went upstairs, they sat near the windows, enjoying the amazing garden that this universe had, he recognized some trees and bushes that in his world were still pretty new, but Alfred’s care and love have made them look big and lively.

Still Tim’s mind wasn’t completely there.

“What are you thinking?”

He glanced briefly at Damian who looked at him for some seconds before following Tim’s eyes to the outside. Tim shrugged his shoulders, hands put on a bridge under his chin, cup of tea close to his elbows, so the steam hit under his nose every time he breathed.

“Just how alone this Jason must be feeling” he said “I mean, back then I felt so alone too, and he doesn’t have not even Dick to turn into.”

“I doubt a nine year old can help Jason with anything” Damian arched one of his eyebrows, voice the perfect amount of friendly mockery and concern. Tim nodded.

“You know what I meant. You had a Dick Grayson all for yourself.”

Damian nodded, solemnly as it didn’t bother him at all. Tim mock-huffed and lost himself to nowhere in particular while mussing the last few days in his mind.

He really needed to discuss with someone how he was about to kiss an adult version of Damian down in the cave and how he hadn’t stopped having yearning feelings towards his other-self fiancé. Maybe it was some kind of self-love issue, or maybe he had daddy issues. Though Batman Damian wasn’t that older than him and this Damian wasn’t either. Maybe he yearned someone looking at him like that, but he couldn’t imagine his own Damian doing it, maybe never, in his eyes he was a kid that still needed to have proper sex education and develop an interpersonal skill before he could ever try to have a girlfriend or boyfriend of sorts.

Yeah, Tim is more than aware he had a girlfriend at Damian’s age. And based in his experience, for much love that one might feel, he wasn’t ready then to have such a big compromise. And he was robin.

Yet, Stephanie came into his life sometime after, and stayed, and it was the damn best relationship he had in all his life because he learned so much, Steph was just slightly older than him, and more experienced than him and she always said and did what she wanted and taught Tim everything he had to know to be a good boyfriend. He was such an idiot and yet she liked him. She was his best friend even after they stopped being the lovebirds of the bats.

Maybe that was what Damian needed, all of them had had it before, even Bruce, so, it was the obvious conclusion.

Maybe he should try to push the idea into his brain sometime later, as a brotherly advice or something, because, truly, what else could it be?

Honestly, he just wanted to help him, and help Jason too. Coming back to the young lonely red robin Tim couldn’t stop chewing on his lip.

* * *

Good, Jason could do this. He could. Everything was good, well, excellent.

Bruce taught him the basics, the detective skills he needed in order to investigate a case, the proper way to stake out, basic advanced computer skills, enough to hack into government systems and to erase his traces as he pleased. Bruce even taught him how to take proper care of the cars and the bikes and even what Bruce didn’t teach him, Alfred or Roy did. He knew how to disarm a gun in record time and how to modify anything into a bomb. He was that good; he needed to be in order to be robin. So yeah, maybe he wasn’t as skilled in every martial art like Damian or as smart and intuitive as Tim, or even as acrobatic as Dick, but he had been good and had fought hard to acquire these skills. He was good with his punches and had stamina enough to win every battle, but these skills made everything that easier. He was the boy wonder after all.

So it pained him, the kid that literally grew in the streets and didn’t have even a proper tv while living with his mom and his shit-faced dad but learnt everything he had to in less than a year, to be stuck in this. The other Tim had given him clear and easy to follow –at least for them- instructions on how to build the base for the machine that would bring back Damian and Dick, but somewhere in the blueprint he had messed up and now nothing made sense. He needed help. He admitted that. He called oracle, but Steph was off-session, maybe at college at this hour.

Alfred tried to help as much as he could, but he didn’t understand either where in the blue print Jason had messed up. Everything made sense, because somewhere was something that wasn’t supposed to be there and had shaped the rest to hide it well. He groaned and almost destroyed all his hard work, but Alfred stopped him, made him go upstairs, and relax for the rest of the day until the other Tim called.

Jason decided he would have a walk around the manor surroundings, the big garden where he could run, and cartwheel and be as useless as he wanted under the sun. He flipped in the air a few times, landing in front of a tree that bordered the frontier that separated Wayne manor with Drake manor. He had saw the fairly modest manor from his room before, nothing like Bruce’s, and honestly the drake properties weren’t that big, not like other neighbors at least. He wondered if there had been animals on that manor before, because the stable was bigger than the actual house, but Bruce hadn’t know and Alfred wasn’t as interested in the neighbors as one would thought. He climbed the tree, wanting to see better from his new standing point.

It was the same lame and sad view. The abandoned place that had grass growing wildly and seemed lonely and a bit scary. He wondered how it looked before when there was someone living there. He wondered if the faint light of one of the rooms or the hall shined through the windows and illuminated the dark night, or if there were voices wandering in the garden where an iron table and garden chairs were located just at the side of what looked like a kitchen by the large windows.

He wanted to see.

Back at his home, mom would always try to put order to the mess before giving up and sat numb by the heather. Jason would try to clean too, but always just what he used and thus he never really cleaned that throughout. When Bruce met him, all those years ago, he hadn’t understood how everything had gotten to the point where the mess climbed to the walls and covered the floors.

And now, seeing what the drake manor looked like inside, through the windows, he asked if Tim had ever been messy as a kid. Even when there hadn’t been anyone inside for years, the manor was spotless, covered by a light sheet of dust but otherwise very clean. Nothing was out of place, nor did it seem it ever had.

He knew he shouldn’t, but he entered the house anyway. He used his skills to pick locks to enter the house –back in crime alley there was a kid that taught him how to open locks and how to pick on cars- and in minutes he was inside, going upstairs. He opened the first door that the stairs led to, it looked like storage, there was the body of a bed but no mattress, and nothing that said that someone lived there. The other one was similar, but there was some old nanny clothes hanging on one of the corners and a catholic cross above the bed. There was a door he couldn’t open, but didn’t pick the look to pep inside, and went to the other. There was a bathroom, in front of it, there was another room, a bigger one, that had a size king bed and an adjacent –smaller- bathroom. There were some old pictures in the nightstands of a family together with a green background, but Jason wasn’t interested in this room either.

Finally there was a room that seemed livelier. There were books in the shelves, videogames and cd’s piled at the sides of a big-old television. There were some ripped posters in the walls and some stickers in the closet where a lot of old snickers were thrown without care in. Jason stood in the middle of it. The bed was made but there were wrinkles all over it. The nightstand didn’t have any photos on, but there was an old Polaroid that in better days had been white. Under the bed there were boxes that at first sight were unnoticeable. Jason shouldn’t but he did anyway. What would Tim do? Leave him alone, at his own luck, again?

Inside the boxes there were photos, not the kind the Polaroid produced. These were revealed photos made with a better camera. Gotham’s skyline, the night stars, teenager smiling. Stephanie eating ice cream in her old spoiler suit, Damian and Bruce jumping in the dark of the night, Damian and ace playing in the manor grounds, Alfred eating cake, frosting on his cheek, Bruce reading the news and drinking bourbon in his night gown. These were from before Tim went to live with Bruce at the manor, well… he never got to live there very long. It was easy to deduce as jack drake smiled at him, holding a dusty fossil for the viewer to see. Tim used to have this life. And now, he didn’t know of any place Tim stayed longer than a month.

He wanted to have him in the manor, to have him taking his stupid photos and telling Jason to mind his business every time he butted his nose in his room. He wanted for Tim to be like he was when they worked together; he wanted to have that big brother Damian could never be.

He wanted help.

* * *

Stray plopped down, doing the pirouette like the little Dick Grayson had told him how to do. They were practicing one of the routines that the flying Grayson did at the circus back when they were still the main attraction –don’t say the D word in front of a kid, you monster-, while the adult Richard was having troubles to remember every move with exactitude, Stray was simply enjoying the little kid not knowing how to explain things that for him where as natural as to breath.

“Good, you mastered it, now nightwing and you can try out the moves together; I’ll be waiting so Stray can trap me in the air once you’re close enough.”

It was simply enough. Nightwing would jump in the trampoline, do a somersault and using the momentum jump harder, grab the bars in the air, where Tim would be swimming near him in the other one, once Dick was secure, he would balance his weight to swig away from Tim, while, at the same time, the man would use the back of his knees to grab the bar and swing away from the other as well, Dick would jump, twisting in the air, and Tim would grab him when the swimming bars were close enough and in the middle of the air, Dick would impulse his body upwards to sit in the bar, and Tim would let his body be manhandled, he would jump to the other side, more or less close enough from where the little robin would be waiting. They would repeat the jumps two more times and then Tim would sit in the bar in position to grab the kid in his arms. Legs wrapped securely in the bar and hands shot above his head, little Richard Grayson would do his quadruple somersault in the air and shoot his arms to Tim’s direction, and they would twist so now Tim would be shooting his legs upward for the other man to grab him and finish his part with a handstand on the other platform. The other two would do some more twisting and vaults and finishing with the three of them standing alongside.

The boy was laughing, struggling a bit with his air; the other man was breathing hard but seemed as happy as his big performance smile, little droplets of sweat in his hair. Tim was tired as well, but his muscles hummed happily and his burning cheeks were enough to keep him smiling.

“It had been so long since I did that” Richard said, sitting in the platform.

“I bet the circus and no-safety net make the whole thing the more exiting” Stray commented to the boy who laughed.

“We wear the safety net and the mats every time we practiced, we only discarded them for big shows” he clarified.

There were stairs for them to climb down, but as the show up both the Graysons were, they somersaulted once more and landed perfectly in the floor, waving at Tim who prepared to jump as well, he let his body twist in the air and landed close to them, though he slipped at the last minute, not used to land with the snickers at all, and these were slipperier than his heels.

He would have regained his equilibrium, no matter what he wouldn’t have fallen; he would have gotten out of it with just a bit of embarrassment. But someone grabbed his waist and that unbalanced even more his body, all his weight going down just like the person that tried to rescue him. He shoots a surprised look to this world robin.

“Dami! Are you fine?” the young teenager looked embarrassed and regretful for his actions, he tt-ed and sat straighter in the floor. His knee had hit Tim in the hip but right now the man was more preoccupied by the boy’s hands that were naked and red. “Look at your hands, my poor boy”

“Let me see” Richard the older exclaimed, grabbing Damian’s hands and blowing cold air to the burning skin.

“you should have let me fall, Dami, I would have been fine” Stray said, receiving gratefully the hand of the other robin to stand up, he patted the places of his clothes that were covered in dust and then did the same for Damian, Richard praised him for being such a dutiful hero instead.

“It was an instinct, it won’t happen again” Damian said, shaking away Dick’s hands so he could put his arm on his back.

“oh, it’s alright, I just don’t want you getting hurt because of me” Tim said, long fingers brushing away the spiky hair away from the boy’s face, soft smile on his lips “what would you Tim think of me if I let you?”

“tt.”

“ah, I guess I haven’t say my thanks, yet” Stray jumped, suddenly his usual animated and flirty-self coming back to his body. He grabbed Damian’s head with both hands and moved it to the side so he could give him an obnoxiously loud kiss on the cheek. Richard laughed and did the same to the other cheek and just like that Damian regretted being a hero more than he ever regretted it before.


	7. little tiny promises.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything is slowly getting back to normal for everyone, or is it?  
> Well, there are some people that might or might not want to change some things for the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah!  
> you know how university in certain places can be, well, I have this pain called "estudio en USACH y paso en paro" but some of you might know it as "time doesn't really exist"   
> if you know Spanish and if you are from Chile, you'll understand.   
> I love Jason. I do, but I'm not ready to write him without feeling ooc when I do it.  
> There's the thing, Our babybat is in love with Stray, our babybird just wants to love and be loved again (steph please get back) but he's a teen going to adulthood and romance can be complicated like that to accommodate, so he prefers thinking as it as a daydream or as a distraction. and the D-Batman is slowly but steadfastly accepting that his undying love might not be a secret or something he can run away from forever.

Little tiny promises.

Damian was a bit astonished to be working with his father. Well, this man wasn’t technically his father but shared a similar story. If Damian was a bit more like the new stray kid his father brought home, he would think they were actually bonding over the tools they preferred the more.

It was stupid, really, how this man, that had known him for less than a week, acted more cordially than his own blood and flesh in his universe. It wasn’t that father had been always cold, there were moments. But to the growing boy raised for assassins till nine and abandoned in Gotham to live with his father till eighteen was so hungry for affection and care, that he couldn’t appreciate the little things his father, a man of few words and that preferred actions over them, did do for him. He tucked him in bed, even if the barely turned twenty eight man that never had to care about a kid before wasn’t sure if it was the correct thing to do, he recorded messages for Damian to listen to when there had been a fight, Bruce hated strong emotions that couldn’t be directed to the face of an evil-doer, so he and kids didn’t mingle that much.

Later in life he understood his father view the world different, and that he had never had anyone to understand the struggles of being different with.

Of course it didn’t erase years of neglect but made it easier to understand.

With time his father had awaken his paternal instincts, which crashed messily with Damian’s want to get independence.

Maybe it was that because Tim entered so easily in their lives. How the annoying, insistent kid that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times they sent him home, made a nest in the hole in Bruce’s heart, soaking up in all the love that Bruce couldn’t give to Damian. A kid that was so used to be neglected and showed sporadically signs of affection than knew how to read between lines better than Damian did. Raised by Talia, who was passionate but controlled, and then by Bruce who appeared cold but was just as confused as Damian about what he felt, Damian often confused what was written between those lines as deception, resignation and unspoken expectations.

And was his death that made Bruce’s heart look for the face of his deceased kid everywhere. Jason came in and the kid was just so sad, so dirty-up by the world he had to grow up in, so needy and yet put on a front of the strong and independent kid that took care of those smaller than him, that Bruce couldn’t simply turn his back to him, he centered him, he was his light through the dark, something Damian never could be. The street-smart kiddo who was as hungry for affection as Damian at his age. It was easier to connect with him.

It was easier to be a brother to Jason that it had been to Tim, or Steph, or even Barbara once she came in the picture, or Cassandra when she appeared around and stayed long enough for them to see her. They were the greatest together, Jason would talk with Damian things that he never would tell Bruce, and Damian experimented such love and devotion that no one had directed to him before. Yeah, he had friends that loved him unconditionally, but it wasn’t the same, Damian felt at home when he was with Jason.

He just hoped the kid hadn’t been doing all the things Damian ordered him not to.

He sighed as his father talked to this Jason, the Red hood of this universe, on how important was to keep his comm open all the time while the younger man mocked him with his hand as a puppet and his waist cocked like an obnoxious teenager.

Well, it seemed like Jason would be Jason no matter where he was.

\--

Barbara was passing in front of their door when Alfred opened it, the red head shot her big green eyes up to the old man and immediately put her hands on both her hips, then as she seemed to chastised herself in her mind, she let her arms hang on her sides as she schooled her face into a hopefully not too interested yet not too cold face.

“Is Dick home?”

Alfred shook his head, making himself step aside so Barbara could get inside. The girl doubted for a second before stepping in, once they were far from the door, the butler explained to her “Master Richard seems to be involved in a case of disappearance with master Damian, we haven’t see much of them, neither does the league. Recently, however, Master Jason entered contact with someone of extremely importance, so he’s down in the cave talking to them now. Were you planning to spend the evening with Master Richard?”

Batgirl, the too hopefully, idealistic girl that didn’t want to sit around waiting for someone to save her if something happened and thus decided to become something new, something no one would look down onto, was a smart girl, if just a bit of a sarcastic ball of red hair and too much knowledge, and of course the kind that was always worried and wanted to be useful and be there when things went wrong to help.

She was the cheerful company needed when Dick was learning how to cope with the loss of his parents, and she was who helped him train after Jason passed him the mantle. She had been already a companion on patrol to the former robin, and was trained by both Stephanie and Cassandra, and so, it was no surprise to anyone when the training sessions transformed to loyal companionship and then a friendship. Though, and because they could see the signs, they knew that at least little Barbara was harboring and trying to hide a little crush for the new robin.

As she listened, her eyes betrayed what she tried not to show, how worry and guilty she felt. Of course, with time as everyone had at some point, she would learn how to disguise better her emotions. Alfred mourned a bit at the loss of innocence. “We were supposed to read to the kid group of 2 o’ clock in the library today.” She pouted a bit. Then her face went to the determination of her father.

“I’m going down then, so Jason can fill me in with the details. Thanks Alfred.”

Once she was downstairs, a familiar, yet not, voice made her spine shiver. Tim. The Red hood.

Of course she tried to stay as away from him as she could. Stephanie always sighed in defeat every time they could hear Tim and Damian fight over the comms whenever they crossed paths. She knew all the important details of the second robin and knew he was dangerous when he wanted to be. Hell, he even tried to kill Jason. Yet, Cass and Jason always liked him too much, always tried to lure him into the manor, make the prodigal son come back. It was, heartbreaking.

Damian’s orders were clear, and even if he hadn’t been Batman for very long, Barbara tried to trust his gut.

She came down in a defiance stance, just to feel stupid when she saw that Jason was speaking to a loud speaker on the computer that was giving him instructions on something. She scanned the room and it wasn’t difficult to see it was that small piece of machinery put in the middle of a mini ocean of tools. Jason, bangs tied to the side by some hairclips, was hunched over some papers as he nodded, he seemed so concentrated. And the voice was so gentle yet controlled.

“Are you building a bomb?” she asked, a bit of that nervous tremble in her voice, yet she tried to appear as animated as she could, Jason smiled to her and then the voice asked who was there, genuinely confused. Well, it was true that they barely spoke to each other but that was rude.

“Is Barbara” answered Jason, waving for the girl to come closer. Once she was close enough the voice exclaimed loud enough to make her jump (“Gordon?”), like a screamer would make a poor librarian jump. She was a tough girl; no many things could startle her like that. It was that… Red hood wasn’t this loud.

“gosh, you sound so young. I never met you at this age. How old are you? Fourteen, fifteen? I mean Dick is at least eleven or twelve or something, I don’t know, I’m not good with kid’s ages.” And he definitely spoke more than the Red hood. Who was this guy?

“Who the heck are you? You sound like someone I know but you can be a shapeshifter or something.”

“Oh my god, I’m listening to Batgirl! The Barbara Gordon! At her beginnings. Dude, in my universe you are like…well, you were like the beginning of Bruce having to accept he wasn’t a god, you changed the game, I mean, I always thought that once I retired I would follow your steps, you know?”

“What. The. Fuck?”

A deep laugh, from that voice all of them knew better than their favorite song, came over to them followed by a lighter, weirder and almost unfamiliar laugh. Bruce and Damian.

“I’m sorry, I’m rambling. You see, I’m Tim Drake from another universe, one where you are the first Batgirl and the Oracle. You trained us, the robins after Dick, and basically made possible the net of connections in this family to make our night jobs work. Without you it would have been a disaster.”

“You are confusing her, my boy.” Bruce said, in the softest, happiest tone he had even used.

“Bruce?”

“Hi Barbara, you sound about the age you were when you first started to dress up as Batgirl.” He commented.

“You are not dead?”

Just when she asked Jason shook his head, some of the hair tied in the hairclips slipping free.

“No, listen. They are from another universe, but yeah, our Bruce is alive. This Tim here is helping me bring Damian and Dick back to this universe, but our Tim is bringing Bruce back from wherever he is. Is a very long story Barbi but there’s no time to explain everything.”

“You teamed up with Red hood?” asked the red head after a beat. Well, thanks for calling.

“I didn’t have a choice” Jason said, defensive and adverting his eyes.

“Great, then why the fuck I am here, anyway? You can do stuff alone” Jason grabbed her wrist but she snapped his hand away. They looked eyes for some hot seconds where rage and embarrassment and betrayal crossed each other eyes when finally Jason sighed.

“Barbara, I was alone. I had to take care of WE while Bruce was out, I had to search for Damian and Dick, and the best damn shot I had was Tim. He always knows how to take care of some things, and he helped, actually, he sent Tam to take care for the general meetings, while I, the street rat Bruce adopted, just attended when it was necessary. I’m sorry if you feel ignored, I had too much on my plate and I didn’t want to drag you into this mess.”

Barbara breathed hard for some seconds, looking for something in Jason’s words and posture. Finally she hugged the older boy “I’m already into this mess even if you didn’t ask me.” She whispered.

Then she punched his shoulder “but next time, if Dick goes missing you call me! How is possible that only today I hear about it?”

Jason laughed but that was it. They both kept talking with Tim as they worked together in the machine.

\--

It wasn’t like he was that worried about his replacement. It just, Tim disappeared just like that, and it seemed that was the end of it, then the little creep called managing in hours what would have been impossible if they were normal people and if they never had gotten their hands in that stupid rock.

And no one told him.

He came one afternoon two days after to see how everything was going, to see if Dick was sad or something as they didn’t cross routes not even once (and laugh in his face like the good annoying brother he was), and found out that Tim had been talking to them for hours. And no one thought, “hey, let’s call Jason so he can be less worried!”

He gave Tim his piece of mind but the replacement called him a grandmother and Jason went to help Bruce so he could feel less infected with these Dick’s habits of smothering over the little birds. Really, he was mortified to be called that when he was only being a little bit human with the baby bird. It hurt his almost inexistent feelings.

Currently he was bitching to Bruce, as always, while helping arming the last details for their machine, when he realized that it wasn’t Bruce sitting beside him, nodding along every now and then, it was the other Damian. 

He looked all around for Bruce, he swears he had been sitting here beside Jason at least at the beginning, and Jason hadn’t been so lost inside his bitching and the machine in front of him to not notice how Bruce stood up and left Damian by his side instead. Had he?

“Timothy called for him just a moment ago; he’ll come back in some minutes.” Jason tried to act annoyed, like ha hadn’t been caught looking for Bruce like a little kid looking for their daddy in the middle of a room full of people. He grumbled. “Now, on the other hand, you might want to keep talking what’s bothering you. I’m actually very familiar with how you express yourself.”

“Yeah, right.”

“You possibly are familiar with my life-story, so you don’t need me to remember you how much of a brother I think of you, Jason. Feel free to let out whatever is in your mind right now.”

“In case you hit your head too hard; I’m not your Jason, and actually it feels really awkward to talk about stuff with someone that I don’t know that well.”

“Yet here we are, and I have been listening to you blabbering about how unfair Timothy is with you whenever you act brotherly to him, despite the kids on the streets smiling brightly at you when you perform those exact same brotherly acts. I get that you have never truly understood how your Timothy works, and so you’re just recently learning how to perform as a brother to someone so…unreadable.” Damian explained, voice in a matter of fact tone, eyes closed in a condescending mock of an expression and hands no stopping their work on his part of the machine.

Jason huffed. Shut up demon spawn, you talk to me like that when you grow some more inches. Instead of saying that, because the guy beside him was already an adult so it wouldn’t make sense, Jason shook his head. “No, I’m not. I’m just sayin’ that if a guy is involved in someone else’s turf, without that shit even being his fault, and someone had disappeared during the development of the mentioned turf and reappeared after a while, then the least thing their so called family could do is call the guy and tell ‘im that everything is fine. Like, is the bare minimum.”

Damian shrugged his shoulders and that was all they could share before they saw how the mini Damian bolted in front of them just in time to grab Stray who had been performing some kind of circus act with the Graysons. The guy was just too unbalanced to be saved and Damian was too small, so of course they would fall, just in front of them.

From where they were they could barely hear anything, but words weren’t necessary to understand what was happening. And Jason couldn’t help but snicker to himself at realizing the brat had some sort of crush for the other Tim. He scoffed, in an attempt to make the Damian beside him comment something –About puberty, bad choices, developing taste, or easy people with cute faces-, but as he faced him the other man was stiff quiet beside him, looking at the scene with a lost look in his eyes. As if he had gone numb.

“What about yer Tim?” he asked before he could stop himself “Have you discovered how he works yet?”

Damian swallowed and adverted his gaze; he huffed loudly enough to sound offended and said with a grunt “why should I care for it?”

\--

Tim couldn’t be blamed if he was giddy, in fact, if someone looked at him weird for bouncing in his place while looking in front of him expectantly, Tim himself would hit them with the biggest smile on his face while doing it.

Not like anyone could look and judge him anyway, everyone was doing just as Tim. It felt like being present during the moon landing. They had decided the time, 3:30, for the activation of the machine and the travel of the other lost people to return to their own universes, about three nights ago, when the machine had successfully transported some of the experimental subjects to make sure it worked. After a rock, a moth, a chair and a predictable batarang, they finally decided it was ready to be used and so they prepared for this day.

The Damian of this universe was looking to the front without blinking, eagerly, and if he was as nervous as Tim was, he had his mouth so dry that trying to shallow was painful at this point. Bruce and Selina were standing behind him, one arm in either of his shoulders, like the supportive parents they were in this universe. They waited.

Two minutes.

A portal opened; slowly enough to attract some lose papers to its gravitational vortices.

Four minutes.

Between the light and the electrical energy they could feel all around them that made their hairs stand up with the static of it all, they could see some shadows. Then the shadows started to gain form.

The first one to cross to the this universe was Damian, which, confusing; then Dick Grayson and finally-

Damian’s breath hitched and his eyes fluttered when he saw and felt in his bones how the love of his life crossed the portal with confidence in his every step. Almost like he was running but was too prideful to look like he was; just like his Tim.

Once Stray crossed, the portal shut down as if it didn’t want to make anyone else cross to either sides. Tim looked a bit disappointed by this but it was after all his theory. The batman Damian and the little dick both walked toward him as soon as they saw him, examining with looks only that everything was in order.

And in the same room, at the same time, Stray stopped just in front of his family, taking in everything in his system. There they were. His mother. His father-in-law. His fiancé. The smell of the cave. The smell of Selina’s perfume and Bruce’s aftershave. All was there just like he remembered, just like he hoped. He just needed to take some steps forward and could feel their warm. And that was enough to make him cry.

As if the time had stopped for a second there, it restarted with accelerated force. Stray jumped over Damian, legs and arm rounding to his neck and back and hips, grabbing him like he was his only life-line. Little sobs and laughter were escaping loudly from both of them as they hugged and collapsed on the floor and sat there for -not long enough- some couple of seconds. His mother came down to her knees to look at him, raising his chin up so they could look at each other’s eyes, and she joined the hug too. Bruce sat there and patted both his wife’s and son’s back as they whimpered their words in place of having just a normal greeting.

Tim finally let go enough of Damian so they could separate and see each other at the face, touching here and there, large and warm hands caressing his hair and the back of his neck as his long fingers and manicured nails explored cheekbones and lips and eyelids. And he couldn’t help it. He was just so happy and relieved to be back, with his fiancé. Damian had let go of his neck and explored his inner pocket as he sat back in the space between his tights and laughed the tears away. Looking as nervous as he ever got when he was expecting a reaction from Tim; this was no test that he often did with a malicious look in his eyes, he had this expression of hopelessness and it was so cute, Tim couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at that.

“What is it?” his voice was slightly trembling but he was smiling and cleaning his tears track “is that a batarang on your pocket or you’re just happy to see me?” he laughed, earning a fond huff from his mother and a little pinch from her too. Damian laughed too and grabbed his wrist so there was nothing between their faces. He kissed his lips slightly.

“The happiest” he answered, which made Tim giggle and cover his mouth like a shy teenager. “But is not a batarang. Actually,” and at first no one else commented nothing, they looked straight to the object balancing in Damian’s hand, stupor clear in everyone else’s faces, even Bruce had his eyebrows disappearing in his hairline. Then Stray whimpered so loud that even he himself startled for it. There, the box from that faithful day made another great apparition right in front of his eyes, but this time Tim was completely dressed, and there was not rose petals all around them and definitely it wasn’t their anniversary day either, yet Tim was as surprised that day as he is now.

-the anniversary in which Tim made sure Damian was working all day so he could prepare him a surprise that involved roses’ petals and he himself naked, and a little treasure hunting to make it difficult for his lover; but then the surprised one was he.

As he poured champagne into a tall glass, smiling to himself as he heard the wind whistle through the curtains, in the room where they used to sneak in for their most innocent and early days of their relationship, he almost let a squeak when a pair of lips found his shoulder. Then the familiar tired groan of Damian almost made him laugh. He grinned as he kissed his check in a warm welcome but was the absence of words from his other part that made him worry a bit. Maybe Damian was too tired to deal with his eccentric surprises, even if this one was pretty tame; and then, just when his mind was flooded by worried thoughts, Damian took off his coat and placed it in Tim’s shoulders, hands sneaking from his shoulders to his waist then his hips and up again until they rested in his face, such a nervous look in his face.

“What’s wrong? Something’s happened? Honey, I’ll understand if you have work to do, don’t be guilty”

“Nothing’s wrong, timothy. I’m just irrationally nervous.” He gulped and then kissed Tim’s knuckles while his other hand was still in the smaller one’s cheekbone. He looked up when his lips posed on his ring finger and Tim’s breathe hitched.

“Dami” he whispered, eyes searching frantically for something in his lover posture, if it was a joke, if it was a dream, if he was being controlled or was untruthful.

“I’m not-… we are not the type to promise stuff like this, timothy, but if you let me, I want to make that promise to you” the ring was in the hand of his cheek all along, and he hadn’t realized because he was simply too stunned. Damian was always the kind of person that loved so deeply, so intensely; how could someone like him, that had been hurt so many times before, let him nest in his heart like this? What had he done to have someone as wonderful as Damian wanting him forever by his side? He knew, intellectually, that they loved each other, that no one could separate them in the past or in the near future, and that the logical step to follow was marriage, still he couldn’t believe how lucky he was.

Then…

He got lost.

At days away from his wedding, and that action only should have guaranteed Damian not wanting to marry him never again or at least not mention it until stuff quieted down.

“You forgotten your ring habibi” Damian whispered against his check, fingers moving around his lack hand and putting the ring where it belonged. The moment he touched the outline of the ring in his lover finger, Damian felt himself tear up a bit but forced a laugh so his sob could die without alerting anyone. Tim hugged him harder than before, nudging his nose in his shoulder in an uncomfortable position and yet this was their moment and nothing in the universes could stop it.

“All I could think about when I was alone was in you, my moon and starts; for you, I choose to look at the sky for a glimpse of you.”

Damian snuggled in his chest and answered without missing a beat “I have died to myself, and I live for you.”

Red robin stayed death silent for the minutes the air in the cave seemed to disappear as those two recited poetry in each other’s ears, but decided to get out of that numb space in his brain and regain control of his body.

Romance was distracting. Of course it was. Little Dick Grayson was annoying his Batman with only these knowing looks, and Damian was trying to look as uninterested as he could with his face frowning at the scene. But Tim knew they were expecting for someone to bring them into the matter at hand.

“so- guys” he clamped his hands together to bring their attention to him “I’ll show you the machine, is almost finished and I’m pleased to inform you that by this time tomorrow you will be in your own cave” he commented “now I’m about to call Jason, if you want to speak to him, please follow me” he then started walking without bothering on seeing if anyone was following him; he didn’t need to anyway with the way the little robin hung himself on his arm and Damian hovered behind him like an oversized shadow.

..

“What’s with the babybat?” the noncommittal tone of the question as he chewed on his bacon was enough to make Dick raise a disbelieving brown to Jason. The younger just shrugged and pointed at Damian who was sitting away from them in the kitchen corner slurping absentmindedly at his cereal. Dick made this “ah” rise of eyebrows as he rested his cheek in his free hand, also chewing his bacon.

“He’s sad because Stray went home; he misses him” he answered in that sad but mocking tone of an adult patronizing the broken heart of a child’s first crush.

“Ah, I remember my first love. They loved me too, but I died and we never got together, but you know.” Dick rolled his eyes but nodded along.

“you know how it is, you see someone older and hot and then you are head over heels; I remember when I was crazy for Kori, ha, it how it is, I guess.”

“Well, he would have ended like that anyway; Stray was just too old for him” Jason snorted and then he leered to Dick in that annoying way of him when he wanted to cause a reaction “but well, maybe in a couple of years he could get his chance” he joked, Dick swayed his spoon at him and tried to muffle his laugh; “damn you, Jay! Is my little brother you’re talking about.”

“Who? Damian? Or Tim?” snickered him at what the older one could only roll his eyes and hit him lightly in the nose with the same spoon.

“Both” he almost sounded angry, if it wasn’t for the tiny smile that wanted to betray his frowning face.

.

“Promise me you’ll be good, babybat” he had said, with those perfect lips smiling and those gorgeous eyes shining by the dim light of the cave, some strands of his hair were framing his face in a way that made him look younger. He hadn’t realized that even if he looked the same as Tim, he was such a different person. He hadn’t realized how much he loved that smile in the former robin face; he hadn’t realized how much he wanted to hear the gentleness of that voice. And now it was too late.

Stray leaned down to kiss his forehead, such a simply gesture but for him it meant so much more. “And be good with your Tim, too.”

“I don’t have to promise” he answered, a bit too much petulant, but Stray only smiled at him and crackled a bit.

“Who would I be if I made you promise just because, Dami? Promise me, because you want to promise.”

“I’m not one to promise.” And with that, Stray patted his head, a perceptive fond look in those gentle eyes that he most probably would never see again. “But I’ll try.” And then everything happened in a blur, they opened the portal while they were saying their goodbyes and then, once the other two annoying presences had disappeared through the portal, so did Stray with a gracious swing of his legs as if he was a cat preparing to jump.

After that he had been too deep in his introspection to even realize how they keep going with their normal lives and now how people were surrounding him, looking at him, talking about him. As a former assassin, this was shameful, as a young teen, it was to be expected. If he could be aware of his own state, he’ll be conflicted about how to indulge in this sweet pain in his chest, that made him want to read poetry and look deep into the few drawings he managed to make before Stray went back to his universe. He avoided thinking on how happy he must be, kissing his own Damian, who wasn’t him and the stupid’s face twitching in a big imbecile smile. No, he instead keeps remembering every moment his brain recollected for him to archive in his own personal binder. Stray eating, Stray sleeping or being sleepy, he jumping or stretching or laughing with both Dick Grayson or just annoying Jason or playing with Alfred the cat or talking about anything. He was such annoying person at first glance but Damian knew, he knew! He was so much more, wise words, pained memories, realistic optimism, the innocuous way he somehow looked more attractive when he wasn’t trying.

A hand landed on his back and so Damian startled a bit but managed to look annoyed enough for the other person not to mention it. It was his father.

“Tim called,” he said; face blank, hand retrieving back. Damian nodded, unsure of what to say or how to answer, so he opted to imitate his father and look as blank as a paper. “He said Stray, robin and batman arrived without any other problem and are now making contact with another Jason Todd, he mentioned that he’ll be back in a week more or less.”

“Well, isn’t that wonderful, father? Soon enough we’ll be back to normal and start with the proper patrol routes schedule.” His father only looked at him for some time, eyes searching, and posture gentle, almost like he was trying to make Damian feel secure and in control.

“How are you feeling?” Bruce asked after a while. Damian tried not to show how off of guard he was caught with that question, raising an eyebrow he answered with the expected words “I’m not unwell, if that’s worrying you. In optimal conditions for patrol.” By the way father was looking at him he knew he said something wrong.

“is all right if you feel a bit tired after all of this; we can stay in tonight and listen to some concert in the studio, maybe discuss some matter if you’re up to it. I’ll make sure nightwing and batgirl patrols our route tonight.” He said and after Damian stayed silent for some seconds he added “maybe we can make Tim put Stray in the line so you can converse with him.”

He tried not to look convinced, heaved a sigh and then nodded, almost looking defeated.

“Then is fixed, go get some rest, son.”


	8. Between worlds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is in the nature of a Tim to want to give a speech that would touch their audience heart, so there are some cheesy words.   
> so closer to their last trip, some Tims want to talk and resolve other people's troubles; and there's also the current problems they should face first in their own worlds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jason is cute, He's having those teenager years he couldn't enjoy in other worlds...  
> Damian in my head is a loyal and devoted man who goes to extremes to keep his loved ones safe.

Between worlds.

“Some unusual activity involving metas in the periphery of the city, but nothing grave, I think.” Oracle filled in that night, no one more than some occasional vigilantes protecting the city tonight, Cassandra and Duke were filling it as much as they could but it wasn’t the same without a batman. Jason hummed in appreciation for the report while his lips were holding some bolts and his hands were occupied with the machine. “Something interesting you want to talk about?” Steph asked after a silent minute, Jason made this shrugging answer before realizing she couldn’t –most probably- see him. He spit the bolts into his hand and cleaned the sweat in his forehand with his wrist before saying “Not much.”

“What about the other Tim?”

“He called around eight; Damian and Dick were there with him, our Damian and Dick. The damn kid was talking like a speedster and Damian wanted a complete report of the city, the fuckers, but the other Tim-Red robin, there- scold him or s’mething and instead made him be “good to me” or some brotherly shit.”

“Such a good example.” Joked Steph before the cave fell silent again, this time the lingering start of a question in the air. One that required courage.

“And what ‘bout Hood?”

“Can’t find him. He’s hiding I think, maybe found a lead and is running around the world once again to rescue Bruce or something. The thing is, I don’t know where he is and if you hear about him or find him before me, I want you to give him a message from my part.” She sounded annoyed, maybe exasperated.

Jason grimaced a bit “ye mean the utterly disappointed face?”

“That one” Steph really was the only one who could get away treating the red hood like he was still the same guy before the whole dying and training with the league thing. A glimpse of what they used to have.

“How’s Barbara by th’ way? She hasn’t come h’re all day.”

“Oh, she’s doing her homework for the week, and in a stakeout. Why you asking?” there it was, the knowing and amused tone on her voice that made Jason question if she was truly the mature woman in charge of all eyes in Gotham.

“F’r nothing.”

“hum.”

“Don’t ask. Ye know is nothing like that at all.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“But you were implying.”

“The act of implying something involves both of our knowledge about the topic that is being implied.” He couldn’t help but groan.

“I don’t like ‘er.”

“No, of course you don’t.”

“She’s like… twelve.” At this Steph barked a laugh.

“Almost fourteen, so yeah, I’m with you in this whole, “she’s younger than you,” thing.”

“Besides, she likes Dick.”

At this Steph actually giggled a bit. “Yeah, she does. Poor you, Jason. The older ones don’t like you and the younger ones like them even younger.” At this he raised an eyebrow, confused. What she meant by older?

“What are ye talking about?”

“I’m talking about your obvious massive crush for Tim” she said as she didn’t just shatter his whole world, and made him reconsider how he hid certain things.

“I don’t have a crush- how can ye even think- he wants to kill me- Steph!”

She just laughed at him.

“Relax boy wonder. I’m not going to tell.”

“There’s nothing to tell anyway, because being so much closed up in yer fucking clock tower has made ye crazy.”

“Sure.”

“Seriously.”

“Hey, it’s alright, we all have been a little bit in love with Tim at some point. I mean, everyone expect maybe Cassandra and Dick. He’s just irresistible.”

“Shut up, you’re gross.”

“Are you scared Damian’s going to find out and spank you?”

At this he couldn’t help but remember how tense, how desperate Damian was when Tim came into the cave, sometime after Bruce’s death, and claimed he was alive. They had fought just the week before and he was still carrying some battle injuries, but he was determinate to prove he was right, he came unarmed and everything so they could listen to him without suspecting he was going crazy. Damian told him he was delusional, that he needed to rest and process everything that had happened. He even held him for some seconds, a sob everyone chose to not acknowledge resting in Tim’s shoulder.

“Please come back to the manor, we’ll going to take care of you, we’ll take care of everything.” He pleaded, almost whispering, His father will pleaded the family to take care of his kids, to make Tim go to Arkham, stabilize his brain chemicals and take care of him at the manor, yet Damian knew his intentions were a lot more selfish than those. He just wanted Tim close to him. So utterly heartbroken. Jason was dealing with so much he hadn’t realized that Damian had lost his father, had lost his home, and had to take care of all Bruce’s kids; that he was essentially a broken man.

“You think I’m crazy” Tim didn’t ask. His voice cold, his posture rigid, that caused Damian to step back and when he did everyone saw how the blank face of one Tim Drake was adorned with rage tears streaming down his cheekbones. “You think I lost it” he almost screamed, voice breaking. Dick flinched at this. “Well, I’m not crazy. I’m not.”

“Timothy-“

“You know what, Damian. I’ll prove it to you. I’ll do it.” And then he stormed out of the cave before anyone could stop him. He disappeared for a long time after that.

He couldn’t forget the grieving face of Damian as Tim ran upstairs. Once again leaving them.

“I’m not afraid ‘f h’m” he answered, voice soft, Steph must have caught the direction of his train thought because she didn’t press the matter further than that and instead asked Jason how far he had advanced with the machine.

\--

Tim was walking through the manor in direction to one of the rooms Alfred had cleared up so the temporary addition to the family could accommodate. They had to bring old bed frames from the storages rooms and move the useless trash that rested in those rooms and Tim couldn’t help but felt so grateful and guilty that he helped Alfred by making the beds and cleaning the floors, despite Alfred telling him it was, in fact, the masters of the house who had done all the hard work.

He was rather just walking without a particular place he wanted to arrive to when, close to the room he slept in when he first arrived, he heard a thud. Curious he followed the sound, just to almost slap a hand to his mouth and ears to not make a reaction sound. The thud was followed by a small breathless moan and a suckling sound. He didn’t need to be smart to catch what was happening.

“You don’t know how much I missed your mouth” someone whispered. Damian. Then more wet noises. As if someone were kissing or-

Tim almost jumped out of his skin the moment he recognized who was there, and the only reason he didn’t run was because he would make too much noise. Instead he kept walking like nothing had happened, slow and quietly. From the other end of the hall, he saw the other Damian and Dick walking to his opposite direction, and he couldn’t help but shiver when he heard in his head the small moan over and over again.

“Hey” he said once they were close enough “what you doing? Want to hang out with me?”

Damian raised an eyebrow, Tim almost could swear his system was restarting all over that phrase before the little Dick Grayson made himself be heard “I want to! You know all kind of fancy tricks, right?”

At this Tim shrugged. “Well, same teachers as Bruce, including Shiva. Also Dick and Cass, and sometimes Bart shows me sick tricks that he can do with his feet when he’s too bored” he murmured in thought, both arm encircling his own waist unconsciously, then he hit his face in realization, groaning a victorious “ah!”

“What?” fortunately, that seemed to be enough to drag their attention entirely to him, Dick followed him as he walked and Damian followed them to make sure Dick was alright.

“I do know some sick tricks not even Dick knows how to do” he said, firmly, almost viciously.

Little Dick beamed and lighten up by his words, looked at Damian with an expecting look “not even Damian can do it?” he asked.

“Well, maybe. If he doesn’t know, I can teach him” then he winked at the older man, teasing him friendly as he rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck and back “unless is too unbecoming of you, big bat.”

Damian narrowed his eyes, and if years reading Bruce’s expressions serve of anything, Tim could swear that was an amused grin for Damian. 

“We’ll see.”

-

The noise the wheels made against the asphalt was relaxing; the wind against his ears was as familiar as your average sneeze. Tim felt like he could laugh and at the same time that if he laughed he would fall, it was the exiting result of a trick that had to be practiced over and over again to be perfect to perform. And Tim was nothing less than a perfectionist.

He crouched over, skate jumping as the curve ended and, grabbing it with enough force, he rotated in the air and landed crouched on the even ground of the skate park; Dick clapped at him and Damian seemed just too awkward to look at anything that weren’t his feet.

“Well, what do you think?” he asked, Dick adjusted the helmet over his head, a little bit crooked to the side, hair slipping and covering his eyes partially, they had rented some equipment in the park cabin for the evening, as it would have been wasteful to just buy their own for one evening.

“Would you teach me how to do it?” asked Dick, sweetly, Tim narrowed his eyes.

Posture, off. Way of grabbing, weak. He had equilibrium, but would that suffice? Tim knew better than to leave a hyperactive kid like Dick Grayson learn all the hard tricks from the start. He decided he would go slowly for now. Going over him he accommodated the helmet the proper way.

“How about you show me how you stand first?”

They spent some hours just like that, learning the basics, and laughing, and just being like the normal kind of kids at a park.

Some time in, Damian stood and went to somewhere without them noticing, to appear just as abruptly, hitting delicately Tim’s head with an ice cream.

“Oh, what’s this?”

He almost scoffed, instead he answered by unwrapping the frozen goodness and passing it to him “ice cream, for you, and for Richard.”

Dick beamed at him and climbed until Damian grabbed under his legs and propped him into his hip, Dick wrapped his arms around him and accepted the ice cream Damian offered him with a happy cheer.

Then the man proceeded to eat his own.

“you surely have your way with kids” Tim commented absentminded, licking his popsicle and enjoying the sun that slowly was preparing to settle in the horizon and let way to the night to begin, just a couple of hours for sunset. The light was perfect, the weather wasn’t too hot or cold, and the happy shrinking and laughter in the background made him felt normal, maybe for the first time since he became fifteen.

“Does your Tim also skate?” he asked, not looking at him, just losing his eyes to the horizon where the sun was slowly making his way to. Damian shifted beside him.

“I’ve never seen him” answered Dick, mouth full.

“I see.” Then he bites his ice cream and in an uncharacteristically way he added, knowing he would regret it later, a bit of his youth to the hanging conversation “I learned when I was around your age, a bit older maybe. It was the first real-kid thing I did in my entire life. My parents always sent me to broad schools, and they never stayed anywhere longer than six months for us, or for me, to settle down and… you know, make friends and stuff. So no one teach me how to skate until I entered Gotham high, and well, I thought maybe your Tim also happened to have the same childhood and the same hobbies before-, you know” he shrugged “…Jason and I didn’t get along for a long time, after he tried to kill me and stuff. But he got along with Damian almost instantly, and I was thinking, maybe a little bit optimistic from my side, someone that doesn’t know you guys that well or anything, that something similar might happen if you give a little push in the right direction. Jason and Damian bonded over the league of assassins, Talia and death. Maybe you guys can bond over the fact that you never stayed one place longer than a few months, maybe over other languages. Not that I know which way is the right way, but maybe using those cute puppy-blue eyes might convince him of teaching you some very sick and dangerous tricks” then he smiled at them, more specifically at Dick as he pointed at his own eyes while talking, “I’ve always wanted a brother” he said, voice palpably happy “and Dick Grayson was the one for me.”

Dick smiled back at him, soft and happy, looking as if Tim has warmed his heart, -not like the kid that plotted his own Tim’s meltdowns at every chance-

“You think that?”

Tim pushed back a blush “well, I think a lot of things, don’t mind me anyway. Kon says I’m gross when I’m being positive”

And they laughed, albeit a bit awkward but it was enough to crisscross the conversation and change the topic.

Damian was still the same guy in the cave, he didn’t really respected his personal space, but now he didn’t accompany his fluttering touches –couldn’t be casual or clumsy if we’re talking about Damian- with passionate words that would swing Tim under his feet, because… damn. However, now he was being a silent company and they focused on Dick all their evening until the sun finally set down. Then they returned the equipment to the kiosk and went home. It was then, when Dick started running before them –still at a secure range where they could follow him with their eyes- that Damian made his move.

He moved some strands of hair behind Tim’s ear and let his knuckles linger a bit longer than friendly-allowed. Tim looked at him, walking slower, questioning.

“You gave Richard a suggestion; a fairly good one if I might say. Would it be upon your heart to give one to me, too?” his posture was normal, yet his guard was down; Tim found the hairs on his neck stick out by the way his hands seemed to want to rest on Tim’s hands, and by the look Damian gave him, sincere, broken, insecure, hopeful. How could he learnt so much about reading the way his eyes rounded and his eyebrows raised, or the way his irises shined or his pupils contracted and blown, and catalogue every tiny detail in his brain to analyze, yet he never consciously used all that recompilation when he recognized all these emotions in Damian’s eyes.

“If you were him; if you knew everything there is between us; and how I yearn for his heart, then, how would you guide me?” he asked; now his hands did rest on Tim’s.

Tim gave it some thought. How could he guide. It seemed the way he forgiven so many times at Jason for every time he beaten him senseless was the natural way to proceed with that ungrateful guy he hold dear. It seemed that open up his heart every time Dick gave him these puppy eyes after doing some merit and treating Tim like his favorite brother was just natural if not a bit heartbreaking every time Tim realized it was impossible for Tim to be Dick’s favorite, no matter what. It seemed that the way he always would banter with Damian yet give his life if anything happened to him was how they said they cared about each other. But that was his natural.

Give advice to Dick on how to bond with the guy he wanted to be brothers with was a thing –easier, familiar, and imaginable- but give advice to Damian on how to woo someone that was him but was not at the same time was complicated.

Tim never gave thought about Damian that way. He didn’t give thought to anyone that way since Stephanie and it was his natural, he was too busy, too stressed.

What about their Tim. He seemed feral. Jason had told him he didn’t know where he was, despite having told him they worked together not long ago, but every time he pressed Jason fell silent and that made his stomach itchy. He seemed sensible too, if this Dick Grayson jokes were true, he seemed explosive and out of control despite being distant most of the time, almost as if he didn’t know how to control himself when he felt too much of everything. He cried while confronted, as if he expected a different outcome; yet he seemed to trust Damian, enough to go to the cave when he realized Bruce was alive, enough to let them keep him in the manor until hell broke down.

Maybe.

“What if…- what if you start as friends” he thought out loud. “I mean, how would you try him if he ever accepted being your lover without any preparation beforehand?”

Damian reflected his words.

“I don’t know him that well. There was always a wall of jealousy and anger and resentments and regret whenever we talked; I’ve always learned about him by second hand, or from brown, whenever he appeared, I’d be too mesmerized by him to ever let him know how much I need him. And every time I tried, it seems I said the wrong words over and over again. If he ever let me hold him close, if he ever told me he wanted to be mine; I’ll lose it. I’ll close him in my room, wrap him in my arms, never let anyone get closer, hurt him, I’ll never let him hurt himself; I wouldn’t let him left my side or disappear ever again” Tim felt a knot in his esophagus as he listened, a small shiver running down his spine. So passionate yet something screamed at him to guide Damian out of that mindset. Before he could retort, Damian talked again “I know is a messed up feeling. And I know I would make him hate me more if I ever tried to do it. Maybe I should do as you say. Start as friends.” There was a bit there.

“You’re not sure if you could wait that long?”

Damian shook his head, eyes not looking at him anymore, hands letting his go.

After what seemed a stretched too long minute, Damian rose again and told him, small shine of confidence and hope in his eyes “I’m not sure, yet I have already waited this long, I wouldn’t be an Al Ghul if I didn’t know how to stay silent and wait” Tim didn’t want to compare Damian to a tiger waiting for his pray to slip up, but he couldn’t avoid the image in his mind whenever he looked at his eyes.

“Just try not to be disappointed if you never pass the friendship barrier. Try not to let your life be dictated by a crazy version of me” he made his voice warm and comforting, but Damian scoffed at him. Such a brat.

“How can I be father’s son if I gave up with just one try? But I wouldn’t let that guy control my life like that. It would be… dishonorable.”

“Of course it will.” Tim rolled his eyes but the conversation ended then. And they both almost let a gasp out when they saw Dick fall not so far away from then over some tiny rocks in the asphalt.

\--

Bruce was in front of him, confused.

“robin-“and did that hurt a little too much in his heart. Then Bruce seemed to realize the difference between his sixteen year old and his nineteen year old and corrected himself. “no. red hood-“and it would be funny, really, if it wasn’t for the fact that Bruce’s mind was an almost touchable mess, if his facial expressions weren’t as naked as now; Tim spent most of his formative years learning how to control his own facial expressions around his parents, then reading the subtle change in a blank face around the Wayne. He became an expert even before he realized he needed the skill to survive. It was the difference that made a villain with ulterior motives seem as theatrical as your typical Grinch instead of the poor old lady that gave you the apple that would kill you. Tim knew. He bit that apple before. Bruce-

It didn’t matter, right now he needed to have Bruce stabilized and then send him to the cave. And then, start looking for Damian again. Or go to San Francisco and hang out around the tower or just fuck off to Paris once again.

Damn, he would end living in that horrid place.

Maybe shiva was bored…

Concentrate Drake.

Bruce.

“You know how this goes, Bruce. You go with me easy and queasy and then we can-“

“What are you doing here? Have i- did you” Bruce rarely stammered, much less batman. He used to fall silent whenever he didn’t know what to say, something he used to be good at before the pit but not so much after. The frustration weighted down on Bruce as the bat took some steps back to put distance between him and hood. He didn’t talk again, probably trying to compose himself, maybe to formulate a sentence that wouldn’t break in the middle.

“Bruce. We need to get out of here.” He pressed chest heavy, voice vice cold. He needed to. He needed Bruce in order to find Damian in order to find Dick in order for Jason to have back his big happy family back in order for Steph to stop being angry at him in order for him to finally be free to- god he was so tired. And angry.

Bruce’s hands twitched, but whatever he wanted to reach in his belt, he changed his mind mid-action. Tim didn’t know if he was relieved or annoyed. “Alright. Report” and that command was so much like the old times. When he was part of the mission instead of part of the issue.

“You’ve been thrown back in a time realm. Your memories are surely fuzzy, all over the place, something that we can still remediate. Jason and I have been looking for you for some time, almost six months; he’s waiting for you in the cave.”

“Damian.”

And did Tim’s mouth sour a bit.

“He’s lost. Somewhere. We need you, and your obscenely large connections to the league, to find them.”

“Them?” Bruce’s eyebrows wrinkled in the middle of his forehead, worried lines so much more visible than before; than back then. When he came back he realized this, but it was now that he felt Bruce’s age in his bones. He shook that train thought away and concentrated on Bruce.

“Damian and Dick.”

Bruce’s back hunched over and it seemed like he was crumbling at hearing that both, his firstborn, and his youngest son, were lost; maybe gone. Tim didn’t grab his arm, but it must felt like that as he groaned at Bruce.

“Keep it together. We need to get out of here. Let’s go!”

Bruce didn’t need help getting back in his feet. They followed Tim’s plan to get out, and they lost no time recounting for any type of injure or concussion. When everything was deemed as fine, they found themselves in a Gotham rooftop.

Like the old times.

“Hood…” he looked up at his mentor, someone that came so close to be somehow like a father to him once back in another lifetime. Now, Tim just saw the shadow of his past hanging over him. Yet he couldn’t help but feel relief. Batman was back. Bruce was back. Everything would be fine now; everything was in its right place.

But that didn’t meant he had to take Bruce’s emotions and digest them for him. So he grabbed a batarang from his belt, pointed it at batman and glared.

“Jason is at the cave.” He said, cutting. Bruce stood there some time, maybe debating if Tim was worth staying there, worth being reasoned with. The answer was upon Tim this time “cave. Now!” and just like that the batman vanished and he was left alone. Always left alone, he wasn’t worth staying for, not before, not ever.

He pressed his auricular, oracle’s line buzzing alive in his ear.

“Hey. I’m going on a trip.” He said, nonchalant, Steph’s huff seemed to tickle his neck.

“just try not to die. Come back before Christmas” he laughed dry at it.

“no promises.”

\--

Something happened. He wasn’t sure of what, and maybe he shouldn’t press it when they were so close to drape this issue up and never ever again see each other, unless they wanted to visit real bad, but somehow watching the kid, the one that he used to be years before, was shouting up all alarms inside his head.

The other Tim wasn’t even doing anything strange. He was having breakfast, smiling at Dick and Selina that polite smile that, inside their current context, was appropriate for the atmosphere inside the room. He wasn’t speaking out of turn or looking annoyed or too uncomfortable, he wasn’t bouncing his leg or biting the inside of his mouth, not even diverting his glance whenever the conversation turned to him, yet Stray couldn’t shaking off.

When he was that age, he wanted nothing but to see where he could end. Now he understands, and back then he did too, that there are millions of outcomes possible for just one person, a barely unnoticeable change in their lives could lead them to live their destinies in completely different and unpredectible ways.

Tim had told him before that he had met with other older versions of himself, but they all were villains. The kind of villains that took priority over other to take down. He can’t imagine what tha image could have done to his still growing brain.

Maybe, he could tell him, in the kind of way a kind councelour tells a confused teen that they can be whatever they put their mind into. Maybe Tim didn’t need to become the best hero out there, he didn’t need to have that weight upon his shoulders; but remind him that not being the hero he think he should be doesn’t mean he is to become the opposite of that and raise among his own ashes to become the greatest villain. Even though at this age, he would have trouble believing that.

He decided to walk a bit before calling Tim over, think the points that would guide the conversation, planning out and watch out for any phrase that would sound off to someone as analytical as Tim. Damian was painting in the garden, no so far away from him, where they had planted some lavender that both he and his mom take care of whenever they were at the manor. They once planned on moving out, but Tim couldn’t leave his lavender and Damian couldn’t leave his father. He was musing over how to point it out for Tim for him to start the conversation so he could act as the listening part when the air changed around him. He had wandered a bit too far from Damian now, but when he turned around, Damian had stiffened in his place, hand hanging up in the middle of a stroke.

Something wasn’t right.

He could feel the tud of weight dropping around his feet, people despite the sounds being as light as birds jumping before flying up.

Ninjas.

He was about to run back to Damian, because even all these years knowing how well trained the younger man was, he couldn’t help but want to alert him to be prepared, Damian must have thought the same as he raised up from his little bank, throwing away his art materials so he could start going through one position of kata, when one of the ninjas thrown themselves over Tim, distracting him with their battle so another two could grab him by the legs, unbalancing him and making him fall on his knees. The three of them pressed Tim’s body to kneel and lower his head, but no one was baring his neck to behead him, and that could only mean one thing.

He heard how Damian kept fighting until they also had him on his knees. Now, it was all about waiting. He knew that if Damian wanted, he could beat the ninjas, but seeing as Tim had stopped fighting, he decided to observe, plan and wait.

He hear his grunt once the ninjas lowered his head and Tim huffed breath out. They were so close yet so far away.

He heard the light steps of someone big, someone with too much clothes on, the damn cape, the damn rings, the damn yanlingdao daggling on his hip, hitting both leg and cape with every step. One might think an assassin doesn’t make any noise but Ra’s al Ghul was such a noise old man.

“Didn’t know Damian invited you for tea; I would have prepared something special for you” he said, not smiling, voice low and poisoning, yet the arched eyebrow and the nonchalant way he rested his ear in his shoulder contradicted the hatred in his eyes and disguised his attitude as a petulant child. Ra’s smiled at him.

“I’m not so much into long visits, although I would like it if my grandson invited his family over for tea sometime, even if it just his mother. Such ungrateful grandson I have.” He sighed exaggeratedly, then cocked his hip a bit to see Damian who was clenching his jaw tight to not answer to futile conversation. “Nothing to say, dear grandson? Oh, well. I’m not here for you.” then he faced Tim again, bending over to grab his face, Tim retreated all he could in the arms of the ninjas, avoiding Ra’s’ first attempt to touch him; but he couldn’t avoid the second attempt and soon he was looking straight to the old man eyes. Pit green. Pit poison. Yet there was a sadistic light amused by all of this.

“Should I suggest you another place and moment to have this conversation?”

Ra’s raised and eyebrow “I’m listening.” Tim smiled at this, the back of his tongue collecting saliva that he then spit right into Ra’s’ face, smirking openly when the man retreated a step back to clean his face, freeing Tim from his grasp “Long after pigs fly, in tamaranean country side.” Damian snickered and Ra’s let the disgust and anger flare up clearly in his face.

“I take it you are angrier at me than I thought” he said, condescending.

“I missed my wedding because you can’t keep your dick inside your pants. Of course I’ll be angry.”

“Get away from Timothy, demon’s head.” Damian shouted, still waiting. They should say whatever they wanted to say soon, because otherwise they wouldn’t choose Wayne manor garden to surprise them. Not with a house full of bats and cats.

“I despise you Timothy. But that doesn’t mean that inside our animosity I can’t feel the ways younger men feel when tempted. I offered you everything, yet everything you refused. I’m hurt, but this is my last attempt.” He began his discourse, eyes shining with some controlled lust, nostrils flaring with every angered breath. “Choose me, Timothy. And in my hands you’ll only flourish, you’ll never dry, you shall never meet the fate common men fear so much.”

“No.” he answered fast, cutting, loud.

“Should I give you time to think?”

“I said no. Want to hear it in Spanish: no.” Ra’s nodded at him, then at the ninjas.

He was about to say or do something else when a batarang hit one of the ninjas grabbing Tim’s arm straight in the face. Then another one fell in the other ninja’s shoulder. Ra’s huffed with fastidious air and moved his hand signaling their retreat.

Damian ran to his side in seconds and held him close to his chest, as if that could hide him from the world, breath agitated, yet his heartbeat calmed Tim like no other thing.

“The last time, he said.” Damian joked.

“Never a last time when talking about him.” He followed, Bruce walked to them, looking them over for any injury and then signaled them inside.

“They hacked the security system. Glad they couldn’t do anything more than that.”

Damian sighed, kissed the top of his head and led Tim to the house by his waist. “Come along, Timothy. I’ll give you some tea so you can rest your nerves while we clean up the disaster they left in the security system.” Tim let him guide him, but would be a very sick man or dying man if he let Damian Wayne bench him.

“As if I’ll let you do it all on you own. Make that tea a coffee, honey.”

Damian wanted to argue, but Tim bit his lip, looking up through his eyelashes “with cream?” he added. Damian simply shighed at this. 

“all right.”

Tim would think of a way to lure the other Tim to open up his heart later on. Right now he has to take care of his family.


End file.
